Discharge Navigator
The Discharge Navigator must be used to discharge all patients from hospital. All activities needed for a safe and complete discharge can be accessed from the Discharge Navigator, both simplifying prescriber work and ensuring that orders, medication reconciliation, documentation and follow-up tasks are coordinated.
The most important steps, in order, include the following:
Write discharge orders and prescriptions
Place the order to discharge
Update the problem list
Write a discharge summary
There are four sub-navigator options available in the Discharge Navigator; only one should be used to discharge a patient.
Discharge – For patients who are being discharged from hospital, to home or to home care. Note that this includes sending to a Supportive Living (SL) or Designated Supportive Living (DSL) facility, as such a destination facility is considered the patient's home.
Interfacility Transfer (IFT) – For patients who will be discharged and admitted to another facility, either to a Connect Care facility or a non-Connect Care facility.
For more information on workflows, see the Patient Movement - IFT section of the Manual.
Discharge as Deceased – Used to document the date/time/cause of death and organ donation information.
Note: The "Tissue" tab may be used to guide, by exclusion criteria, whether the patient is a potential tissue donor and how to proceed.
For more information on workflows, see the Patient Movement - Discharge as Deceased section of the Manual.
Leave of Absence (LOA) – For patients who will be temporarily away from the unit, but will be returning (e.g., patient on a pass).
For more information on workflows, see the Patient Movement - LOA section of the Manual.
Similar to the Admission Navigator, it is important to complete the Orders and Orders Rec portions of the Discharge, IFT and LOA navigators, as failure to do so will prevent completion of the workflow.