Research agenda for discharge planning

With increased competition over diminishing resources in health care today, discharge planning has become a key element for hospital survival. The sudden high status now attached to this traditional social work function has caused major power struggles for control over discharge planning. Social workers have up to now succeeded in being undisputed leaders in this area because of tradition and demonstrations of clinical competence. Continued success and status in the future will require arguments and organizational design based on scientific research and hard data. This paper describes the main questions that need to be examined and proposes manageable approaches for conducting practice field studies.