The purpose of this study was to obtain suggestions for effective discharge support by clarifying the actual situations of nursing consultations in 1525 cases at a special functioning hospital from February 2002 to March 2007, and comparing the characteristics of those patients who returned home and those who transferred to other medical facilities.
Support rate for inpatients was 86.0%. The average length of stay of patients who received support was 70.1 days, with the average number of days needed for support being some 28.0 days. The utilization of the Long-Term Care Insurance System was most common.
Most of the patients who returned home suffered from malignant tumors, and they needed significantly more coordination of social resources and conferences with caregivers than those who transferred to another medical facility. Most of the patients who transferred to another medical facility suffered from cerebral vascular diseases, and many of them needed to continue with rehabilitation, etc., and they required significantly more contact and coordination with other facilities than those who returned home.
This study suggests that early cooperation between hospital wards, the establishment of a cooperation system, and discharge support from the viewpoint of home care are effective.
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