3 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
The goal of NEEDS is to systematically identify patients' needs and resources at home to inform discharge planning by health care teams. We believe the process of conducting such an assessment during hospitalization will integrate the patient's voice and improve patient outcomes by improving the team communication, quality of discharge planning, length of stay, post-discharge outcomes (e.g., satisfaction), and readmissions.
Preparation of patients for discharge is a primary function of hospital-based nursing care and readiness for discharge is an important outcome of hospital care. Inadequacies in discharge preparation have been well-documented and linked to difficulty with self-management after hospital discharge and with increased likelihood of emergency department (ED) use and readmission. Prior studies by the research team have led to recommendations for implementation of discharge readiness assessment as a standard nursing practice for hospital discharge. The investigators will conduct a multi-site study to determine the impact on post-discharge utilization (readmission and ED visits) and costs of implementing discharge readiness assessment as a standard nursing practice for adult medical-surgical patients discharged to home. The study tests, in a stepped approach, the impact of implementing discharge readiness assessment by the discharging nurse as standard nursing practice (RN-RHDS protocol), the incremental value of informing the nurse assessment with the patient's perspective (RN-RHDS+PT-RHDS protocol), and of requiring that the nurse initiates and documents risk-mitigating actions for patients with low readiness scores (RN-RHDS+PT-RHDS+NIAF protocol). HYPOTHESIS 1: Patients discharged using the RN-RHDS protocol will have fewer hospital readmissions and ED visits within 30 days post-discharge compared to patients discharged under usual care conditions. HYPOTHESIS 2: Patients discharged using the RN-RHDS+PT-RHDS protocol will have fewer hospital readmissions and ED visits within 30 days post-discharge compared to patients discharged using the RN-RHDS protocol. HYPOTHESIS 3: Patients discharged by nurses using the RN-RHDS+PT-RHDS protocol plus a Nurse-Initiated Action Form \[NIAF\] (RN-RHDS+PT-RHDS+NIAF protocol) will have fewer post-discharge readmissions and ED visits than patients discharged using the RN-RHDS+PT-RHDS protocol; the effect will be strongest for patients with low RHDS scores. Aim 4: Conduct cost-benefit analysis of implementing discharge readiness assessment as standard practice, by comparing cost-savings from reduced post-discharge utilization against implementation costs.
The purpose of this study is to improve the experience of discharge of adult medical surgical patients through improved discharge preparation communication between patients and care team members, with subsequent improvement in the post-discharge experience. Obtaining multiple perspectives on discharge readiness creates the opportunity for patient and care team to partner in identifying deficiencies in discharge readiness that warrant anticipatory, compensatory, or corrective interventions prior to discharge, with the goal of averting post-discharge problems and utilization. The results will also inform development and translation of tools for assessment of discharge readiness to clinical care environments.