Patient Discharge Practice

What are your practices related to patient discharge? Specifically, do you specify how quick the patient has to be out the door after the discharge order is written (patient must be discharged within three hours of written physician order, for example). Do you consider the patient discharged at the time the physician writes the discharge order, or when the patient is physically out the door? If there is a delay in transportation, do you provide care including meals/meds/glucose monitoring until the patient leaves the facility?

Any input/sharing of your practices would be appreciated. Thank you!!

We are currently looking at our discharge practices because of the impact it will have on our bedflow. Right now, we do not have a standard for the time between written order and out the door. We do continue to provide care until the pt physically leave our hospital.... we recently had a patient fall while waiting for his daughter to pick him up. We got him dressed, stopped our fall precaution measures and BAM! Luckily he wasn't injured and was still able to be discharged.

We are trying to implement a standard discharge time so that patients and families are ready earlier in the day for discharge; and getting Mds in the hospital sooner so that they can write the orders earlier in the day.

Thank you for your reply!! I appreciate knowing what other facilities are doing.