Do you ever eval pts in hosp prior to discharge?

[nurse42long, RN]

Do any of you ever evaluate patients in the hospital prior to their discharge to see if appropriate for HH care? We have taken on many patients once in the home who should never have been discharged from hospital. The hospital discharge planner will tell us, "why of course there is a teachable caregiver, when there is NO caregiver etc. By then the pt is home and needing WAY more care than we can deliver on an intermittent basis. How do you handle?

[KateRN1]

We have account managers who are supposed to visit patients in the hospital, talk with case managers, etc., but my experience has been that our agency will take any patient, no matter how sick or how likely (or not) they are to be "appropriate" for home health care. Drives me insane, but whaddyagonnado?

[jnette, ASN, EMT-I]

Our docs (for the most part) are pretty good about knowing what we can handle and will only refer if they know the patient is a good HH candidate.

Our intake person will ask questions as well during the initial referral call..if it looks "iffy", she consults with our DON and others first...