More patients are experiencing delayed discharges from hospitals, but integrated care boards are working with system partners to develop new and innovative ways to address this. Learn about how the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is approaching this longstanding issue through the use of a discharge lounge as Kathy Oxtoby delves into the second of four case studies.
An extensive refurbishment of the Royal Free Hospital’s discharge lounge has improved patient flow, by allowing more medically fit patients to be transferred from the ward while they wait to be discharged.
Since its refurbishment last year, the usage of the lounge has increased from an average daily attendance of nine patients per day to 31 patients per day, the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust says.
Located on the ground floor near the front of the hospital, the lounge has TVs, magazines, newspapers, a full a la carte menu available to patients to receive hot and cold meals, and a self-serve refreshment station, giving it the feel of stepping into an “Upper Class” airport lounge.
All patients leaving hospital don’t need to wait on the ward for transport, medication, or paperwork – they can come to the lounge and wait in comfort, allowing their vacated ward bed to be made ready for a new patient coming into the hospital.
The lounge is staffed with two registered nurses, two health care assistants and an administrator who can help with transport bookings, new and existing.
Since the refurbishment the lounge has much more capacity. Kyle Harding, assistant operations manager, says: ‘We have the capacity to see up to 26 patients which we can turn over every three to four hours.’
Capacity ranges from high, mid and low back chairs, electronic reclining chairs, a dedicated bariatric electronic chair and a trolley space.
Almost all (98%) of patients have positive experiences with the discharge lounge service as reported through friends and family tests.
Further analysis and case studies
Read more about tackling delayed hospital discharge and improving patient flow in this analysis, and discover some of the other inspirational work being done across England in the other case studies in this series:
- Case study 1: Virtual ward and Quick Start initiatives from Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust
- Case study 3: A home-first ethos from Mid and South Essex ICB and Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust
- Case study 4: A person-centred HomeFirst model
This case study was originally published by our sister publication Healthcare Leader.
