Background: One area of potential savings in healthcare spending is the identification of nonmedical delays in discharge. The purpose of this study was to identify factors associated with discharge delays.
Methods: All patients admitted to our trauma center over a 1-year period with a social work consult were retrospectively evaluated to identify delays in discharge after medical clearance.
Results: Over half of our patients experienced a delay in discharge. Age was not associated with delay in discharge. Higher injury severity score, intensive care unit admission, and hospital length of stay greater than 1 week were all associated with increased delays in discharge. Other factors such as disposition to a rehabilitation/nursing facility and mechanism of injury were also associated with a nonmedical delay.
Conclusions: We have identified nonmedical factors associated with delays in discharge. Strategies using these data could be used to improve discharge planning and may help decrease healthcare costs.
Keywords: Delay; Discharge; Length of stay; Social work; Trauma.
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