Background: Effective discharge planning requires early identification of patients’ post-acute care needs as well as potential barriers to placement. Housestaff receive little formal training on discharge planning and are instead expected to learn “on-the-go”. At the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs (WLAVA) Medical Center there exists many disposition options that aren’t available to our housestaff […]

Background: Hospitals emphasize early discharge to improve throughput. Interdisciplinary team members often report feeling rushed in the 24 hours before discharge, which may increase the likelihood of discharge errors and burnout for the team. Purpose: To identify obstacles preventing timely completion of discharge activities, improve reliability of the discharge process, improve staff experience, and decrease […]