Discharge Planning solutions encompass digital platforms and technologies designed to help healthcare organizations optimize patient transitions from hospital to home or post-acute care settings. These solutions streamline discharge processes, reduce readmissions, and improve patient outcomes by identifying discharge barriers earlier, coordinating post-acute care more effectively, and ensuring safer transitions across the care continuum.
Discharge planning framework
Discharge planning upon admission | Solutions that begin the discharge process at the point of admission, using AI and predictive analytics to estimate discharge dates, identify potential barriers, and streamline discharge workflows from day one. Example companies: Qventus, Aidin, Pieces |
Care coordination | Platforms that facilitate communication and collaboration among multidisciplinary care teams, ensuring smooth transitions and handoffs throughout the patient journey and into post-acute settings. Example companies: Bamboo Health, Vynca, CareCentri |
Hospital at home | Solutions that leverage a combination of remote monitoring technologies, telemedicine, and in-home healthcare services to deliver acute medical care, including diagnostics, treatment, and monitoring, to patients at home. Example companies: Medically Home, Contessa, Inbound Health, Dispatch Health, Current Health |
These are example companies, and not meant to be comprehensive. Did we miss your company? Schedule some time to connect.
The case for digital in discharge planning
The complexity of patient transitions continues to expand, creating urgent challenges that traditional discharge methods cannot effectively address. As healthcare facilities serve more patients with complex conditions and social needs, digital discharge planning solutions have emerged as essential technologies that transform how care transitions are managed while reducing readmissions, optimizing operational costs, and improving patient satisfaction.
Minimize excess days and readmission risk
Discharge delays and readmissions represent significant operational and financial challenges for healthcare organizations. Approximately 20% of Medicare beneficiaries are readmitted within 30 days of discharge, costing the healthcare system over $15 billion annually.1 Discharge planning solutions help address these challenges by identifying readmission risk factors and targeting interventions for the highest-risk patients. Organizations implementing discharge planning tools report significant improvements in key metrics, with studies showing how these tools can reduce mean length of stay by 16%.2 Through systematic identification of discharge barriers and proactive intervention, healthcare organizations can transform their throughput efficiency while simultaneously reducing costs and improving the quality of care delivery.
Streamline clinician workflows and resource allocation
Healthcare organizations face significant staffing challenges that impact discharge efficiency, with the average hospital case manager juggling 20-30 active cases simultaneously.3 Traditional manual discharge processes consume approximately several hours of clinician time per patient and can often result in delays for the patient, creating administrative burdens that detract from direct patient care.4 Digital discharge planning platforms address these inefficiencies through process automation and standardized workflows. An efficient discharge planning process can reduce documentation time by 70% and reduce summary deficiencies by 44%.5 By reclaiming valuable clinician time and standardizing critical workflows, these solutions enable care teams to focus on complex clinical decisions rather than administrative tasks, ultimately improving both staff satisfaction and patient outcomes.
Align care transitions with value-based care goals
The increasing interest in value-based care has placed increased emphasis on effective transitions, with CMS expanding its focus beyond readmissions to include post-discharge outcomes and patient experience measures. Medicare’s Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) Advanced program now includes post-discharge metrics that directly impact reimbursement, with financial consequences for suboptimal transitions.6 Additionally, discharge planning quality is also incorporated into the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program along with other value-based initiatives, affecting Medicare reimbursements for participating hospitals.7 Digital discharge planning solutions help organizations meet these requirements by standardizing discharge processes, improving documentation quality, and optimizing post-acute care transitions. By aligning discharge planning with value-based care objectives, healthcare organizations can simultaneously improve clinical outcomes, enhance patient experience, and strengthen financial performance across the care continuum.
Sources
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3802532/#:~:text=Approximately%2020%25%20of%20Medicare%20beneficiaries,than%20$15%20billion%20per%20year.
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0147956323000584#:~:text=Discharge%20optimization%20tool%20effectively%20communicated,communication%20satisfaction%20improved%20by%2033%25%20.
- https://www.reliasmedia.com/articles/69408-setting-cm-caseloads-requires-perfect-balance-of-many-factors#:~:text=In%20a%20given%20month%2C%20one,complex%20case%20demanding%20special%20attention.%22
- https://caromonthealth.org/patients-visitors/preparing-for-your-stay/planning-your-discharge/,
https://www.qventus.com/resources/blog/why-hospital-discharges-take-so-long-and-what-we-can-do-to-shorten-them/ - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8322483/#:~:text=Results:,to%20streamline%20continuity%20of%20care.
- https://www.cms.gov/priorities/innovation/innovation-models/bundled-payments
- https://www.cms.gov/medicare/quality/value-based-programs/hospital-readmissions#:~:text=HRRP%20is%20a%20Medicare%20value%2Dbased%20purchasing%20program,plans%20and%2C%20in%20turn%2C%20reduce%20avoidable%20readmissions.&text=CMS%20incentivizes%20hospitals%2C%20for%20example%2C%20to%20improve,engage%20patients%20and%20caregivers%20on%20post%2Ddischarge%20planning.
