"Discharge from ward"

About: Musgrove Park Hospital / Cardiology Musgrove Park Hospital Cardiology TA1 5DA

Posted by limpyjohn (as the patient), 5 years ago

I was advised by the one of the Consultant of Fielding Ward in October 2018 that I was fit to be discharged from their care. He told me a heart failure nurse would be along to see me,then a pharmacist would issue required medicines and finally a discharge letter was needed to be generated and my copy printed.The pharmacist came and advised that she would process my meds,then I had a meeting with the heart failure nurse. This was all done before midday.
I then informed one of the nurses working in my bay (Bay A) that my partner works at another hospital and was due to work a night shift and asked to be given a discharge time so I could inform my partner to avoid a shift cancellation which would cause problems for a short staffed hospital. The nurse stated I would be informed. At 14:00 hrs I was asked to vacate my bed and wait in the lounge. I asked should I contact my partner and they stated yes as every thing would be ready for my discharge before their arrival.
My partner arrived at 14:30 and the Nurses for bay A were absent from the ward. After waiting 30mins I asked another nurse who looked into the situation to find the said nurse was on break. I told this nurse of the situation who then checked where the meds were and found they were ready in the pharmacy from 10am and were waiting collection. My Partner offered to collect the meds (they had experience working in this hospital) to speed up discharge and again I explained the situation. A HCA collected the meds. By this time another bay A nurse then arrived to discharge another patient and was informed of our situation, the other patient had already stated they had to wait till after 5 to be collected by family, but the nurse still continued to discharge them first. The other Nurse from bay A arrived but disappeared on another task.
By this time we had been waiting over an hour so I made it clear that I was disappointed with the situation as I had been told to call my partner and everything would be ready. I was then discharged. This farce follows another as I was discharged the previous week after being fitted with stents without a discharge letter which never reach myself or my Doctor's which played a part in my readmission. May I suggest you employ a discharge coordinator who could liaison with the required departments, patients ,and ward staff to achieve a smooth discharge system.

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Responses

Karen Holden

Associate Director of Patient Centred Care, Patient Experience,

Musgrove Park Hospital

Submitted on 09/11/2018 at 12:25

Published on Care Opinion at 13:50

Dear Limpyjohn, I was very sorry to read your experience, after all the good work we do, it is disappointing to hear that the process of coordinating the elements of discharge aren't as we would want them to be. This is both frustrating for you and your partner (and the knock on effect for their workplace) but also inefficient on our part. I have shared the story with the Fielding ward team and asked them to look into what improvements can be made. I am setting the new ward sister up on Care Opinion so that she will be able to respond directly.
In terms of your discharge summary it is very concerning that you and your GP didn't receive it, particularly as this led to your readmission. I would like to arrange to have this investigated further, would you be able to contact me with your details using my email address below and I will follow this up.
Kind regards
Karen
Karen.Holden@tst.nhs.uk

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Alison Brown

Sister, Fielding Ward,

Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 16/11/2018 at 15:37

Published on Care Opinion on 19/11/2018 at 13:20

Dear Limpyjohn, I am sorry that you had a bad experience with regards to being discharged from the ward and having to wait a considerable time for all your necessary medications and paperwork.
Usually, we try to ensure our discharge planning is done 24 hours prior to a possible discharge with staff ordering a supply of medications to last at least 7 days for when a patient is discharged. Sometimes a doctor may change a dose or add a new medication on the day of discharge that will need ordering before the patient goes home. We have a system in place that involves the nursing staff, not the pharmacist, ordering the required medications and sending the request down to pharmacy. When the pharmacy has completed the request they add this to the electronic system that the ward can check. The pharmacy delivers medications about 4-5 times a day. If anything is needed and is ready outside of these times then a member of staff has to go down to collect them. I am really sorry that in your situation this added to a delay, but I have reviewed with the team and will have increased focus and monitoring of this part of our processed.
We prefer patients to go home with a discharge summary rather than send someone home without one as on this is a list of medications that the patient will go home on and which the GP will then prescribe further. Sometimes the doctor is not able to complete the discharge summary as soon as they have said a patient can go home so there can be a wait unfortunately. I am not sure if the doctor had already printed the discharge summary when you were waiting to go home or was still needed. The staff who was discharging the other patient could have come to you first as you had said you were waiting to go home and your relative was waiting to collect you. This is something I have reminded my team to be aware of and prioritise who they discharge first. We will endeavour to make our discharge processes more efficient for all patients under our care. Thank you for your feedback and sorry again for your experience.
Regards
Alison brown
Junior sister
Fielding ward

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Update posted by limpyjohn (the patient) 5 years ago

Dear Alison, thank you for your reply. I would like to say that apart from the discharge situation the treatment and care I received on Fielding Ward was excellent. The reason I suggested that a Discharge Coordinator role be created is that I feel this could take the pressure off the over worked nursing staff and speed up the release of much needed beds. Regards

Alison Brown

Sister, Fielding Ward,

Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 19/11/2018 at 14:28

Published on Care Opinion at 15:20

I am glad you felt the care you received on Fielding ward was excellent. I will pass this on to the rest of the team. Again I apologise for your wait for your discharge papers etc.

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