Discharge Planning Guide, Third Edition: Tools for Compliance

Turn to the third edition of a case management classic, Discharge Planning Guide: Tools for Compliance, for practical, advice on ensuring patient-centered, compliant, revenue cycle-based discharge planning at your organization.

From the big picture to the small details, Jackie Birmingham covers it all.

Instead of pondering complicated regulatory language and requirements, with Discharge Planning Guide, Third Edition, you'll understand how to comply. Authored by renowned discharge planning expert Jackie Birmingham, this book offers real strategies and best practices to move patients efficiently and safely and avoid noncompliance.

You'll get:

- Quick-access guides for locating and citing federal standards as you write and revise discharge planning policies and procedures and support your decisions regarding continuity of care
- Answers to commonly-asked questions, and self-assessments on key content to help you identify learning gaps

What's new:

A new chapter on documentation discusses the electronic health record, required frequency of documentation, patient refusal of discharge planning, condition and disposition codes applicable to discharge planning, and medical information sent to post-acute providers.

Plus, you'll get expanded and detailed information about:

- PPACA (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010) section on Community Based services
- Revenue cycle information as it relates to each step in the discharge process
- Levels of care
- Readmission and repeat admission
- Patient's choice, rights and responsibilities

After reading this handbook, you will be able to:

- Develop an effective discharge planning process for your facility
- Understand payment systems to better manage the revenue cycle
- Identify patient education opportunities in the discharge planning process
- Ensure thorough documentation
- Monitor the progress of patients' discharge plans
- Determine the appropriate level of post acute care for patients

Important topics covered include:

- Discharge planning from a case management perspective
- Discharge planning: Steps in the process
- The Social Security Act: The foundation of the discharge planning process
- Patient's choice, rights, and privacy considerations
- Medicare payment rules and audits
- Discharges, transfers and readmission
- Special considerations
- Description of levels of care
- Documentation, including the electronic health record
- A five question self-assessment pretest at the beginning of each chapter helps you test your baseline knowledge in each area.

Plus you'll get answers to common questions such as:

- What categories should a patient's final discharge plan include?
- How can discharge planners perform quality improvement efforts related to the discharge-planning process in their hospitals?
- How can discharge planners collect discharge planning data?
- What type of software supports data collection?
- How can discharge planners learn whether their hospital has a disclosable financial interest?
- If a patient doesn't leave within a few hours upon being cleared and ready, and the reason is the family's convenience, what options exist for a late discharge?
- What is a good source of information about coordination of benefits for Medicare patients?
- What is a good source of information about changes in healthcare regulations?
- What is the role of physician advisors (PA) in discharge planning?