Health Care : Current Reviews

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Automated Discharge Planning Systems: Perceived Challenges and Recommendations

Alghamdi AA and Taghreed IJ

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the current discharge planning program at the National Guard Health Affairs facility, King Abdulaziz Medical City-Jeddah, and to study the feasibility of introducing an automated discharge planning system in order to improve the discharge planning process.

Design: This study used a qualitative research design where a face to face interviewing technique was applied with the discharge planning team and patients to understand the benefits and barriers of the current discharge planning processes. A digital recording for the interviews was applied followed by transcribing these interviews by a professional transcriptionist and finally a comprehensive analysis was undertaken to understand the facts of the current discharge planning program in King Abdulaziz Medical City-Jeddah.

Results: The comprehensive analysis of the interviews showed that there is improvement in the discharge planning processes in comparison to previous years with lower-admission rate. It was also found that there are now several departments involved in the discharge planning program, whereas in the past there were only unorganized efforts by individual healthcare providers. It was also evident from the findings that there are significant factors that affect the discharge planning processes; (1) Severe shortage of discharge planning manpower; (2) Discharge planning service is undertaken by a group of healthcare providers working under different departments not under one management; (3) Some patients cannot be discharged due to social and financial reasons; (4) lack of an automated discharge planning system.

Conclusion: The current discharge planning processes at King Abdulaziz Medical City-Jeddah seems to be satisfactory. However, there are crucial factors that need to be rectified in order to optimize this program. Increasing manpower and developing an automated discharge planning system are recommended as significant elements to improve this service.