Discharge Planning: It's About the Destination and the Journey

Hospitalization is a distressing time for patients and their care partners. While in the hospital, they are often thinking about how they will manage their healthcare once they leave the hospital. The hospital providers are tasked with conducting discharge planning with the patient and their care partners to ensure a smooth transition from the hospital. However, as the narratives in this symposium illustrate, the patients and their care partners often feel too little attention paid to ensuring their unique needs are met, including their preferences for where they go when they leave the hospital. Patients and their care partners desire increased and improved communication with healthcare providers, including those in the hospital as well as insurers, as they attempt to take control of their discharge through self-advocacy. While these are three common themes across the stories, the authors share a variety of views, circumstances, and opinions that speak to the variability in patients' discharge experiences and preferences.