Follow up appointment same day as pt discharge???

[Firewood, RN]

I just noticed something the other day that I never paid attention to before. Here's a fabricated example of what I saw on a pt discharge from the hospital to ECF form that has me perplexed:

     Call Dr Feelgood's office in a couple days for an appointment in 3 weeks

      Date scheduled 11/13/21 @1120 AM

     Call Dr Goodbar's office for an appointment in 2 weeks

      Date scheduled 11/13/21 @1121 AM

Well, the discharge time was 11/13/21 @ 1300. There was no concierge service and I believe it was auto filled by the computer, but why? Is it a time stamp/reference point so that the nursing home staff can tell when the order was written? I noticed it on other discharge forms also...It makes it look like it was already scheduled but if you read it you know it was impossible!

[JKL33]

It's a program/function where, if discharge planners were setting up the appointments prior to discharge, they could enter the date there so that patients have that information. But if it requires a date when the appointment hasn't been made yet because the patient/ECF staff is going to make the appointment, then they are just entering the current date.

It's nothing more than they probably have to enter a date to file the order and they don't have the date.

[Firewood, RN]

On 11/26/2021 at 9:20 AM, JKL33 said:

It's a program/function where, if discharge planners were setting up the appointments prior to discharge, they could enter the date there so that patients have that information. But if it requires a date when the appointment hasn't been made yet because the patient/ECF staff is going to make the appointment, then they are just entering the current date.

It's nothing more than they probably have to enter a date to file the order and they don't have the date.

Thanks for the response JKL33.  I wonder if others have noticed this before or am I the only dweeb who does...