2008 Volume 12 Issue 1 Pages 26-34
The purpose of this study was to introduce a screening tool to support early discharge developed in a special functioning hospita1 into an acute hospital and to evaluate the validity of the tool． The screening tool consisted of six items and the cooperation with organizations outside the hospital was judged necessary if even one item among the six was positive．
The results were obtained from 156 patients at hospitalization and discharge． The sensitivity and the specificity of the screening tool was 87.5% and 66.3%， respectively． There was no patient who needed to cooperate with the organization outside the hospital with negative screening． There was a significant relation between the necessity and the enforcement of cooperation with organizations outside the hospital．
In addition， patients who executed cooperation with organizations outside of the hospital showed positive screening at a significantly higher ratio than those who did not． These results demonstrated that the screening tool could predict patients who needed to cooperate with organizations outside the hospital． From the above， the validity of the screening tool in an acute hospital was evaluated to some extent．
