Auto Discharge
Auto Discharge is a technology-driven solution designed to streamline the discharge process in hospitals, addressing issues like staffing shortages and increased patient volumes. It uses Location IQ® technology to automatically update bed statuses the moment a patient leaves the room or unit, creating a clean request and dispatching Environmental Services (EVS) team members to clean the room immediately. Auto Discharge benefits patient placement teams, nursing staff, EVS teams, and hospital administrators by providing real-time bed availability updates, automating bed status updates, reducing room turnaround times, and optimizing resource allocation and operational efficiency.
Auto Discharge is integrated into Capacity IQ®.
How Auto Discharge Works
Functionality
With Auto Discharge, a bed status can automatically update the moment a patient leaves the room or unit, creating a clean request, and dispatching Environmental Services (EVS) team members to clean the room, right away.
Capacity IQ® must be integrated with Location IQ® and Capacity IQ® locations must be mapped to Location IQ® locations in order for Auto Discharge functionality to be enabled.
The Need for Auto Discharge
The First Line of Defense in the Discharge Process Staffing shortages and increased patient volumes are just a couple of reasons why patient placement personnel and nursing leadership are often faced with a common issue; finding an open bed for their patient.
While team members search for a bed, the patient is likely stuck waiting in the Emergency Department (ED) or another waiting area, not receiving the care that they need.
Unfortunately, long wait times have been proven to lead to poor patient outcomes and increased ED boarding times. But the reality is, while on paper a health system may look as though it is at full capacity, there might be beds available.
Patient placement teams may see that all their staffed beds are listed as ‘Occupied’, but the reality is that the beds are sitting empty, and they simply haven’t been switched to a ‘Dirty’ or ‘Ready to Clean’ status because the nurse hasn’t had enough time to complete the discharge process in the EHR, even though the last patient left minutes, or even hours, ago.
The Outcome of using Auto Discharge
This simple adjustment to the discharge process using automated workflow technology will open beds up to 2.5 hours* sooner than if you simply rely on the manual efforts of staff submitting information into an EHR, increasing bed capacity for a health system without adding any additional beds
Auto Discharge Flow
Upon admission, the patient is given an armband with a Location IQ® badge.
The patient receives care throughout their stay and continues to wear the Patient Tracking armband.
Once care is complete and the patient is discharged, the Patient Tracking armband is detected at a pre-determined discharge area.
The bed status changes to ‘Dirty’ and a clean request is created in Capacity IQ®.
EVS personnel are immediately dispatched to clean the room. 6. The bed is cleaned, and the room status changes to ‘Available’ in Capacity IQ®.
Patient Placement assigns the bed to the next patient.
The nurse completes the remaining steps for discharging the patient in the EMR at a later time that is convenient to them.