[Medical discharge from a hospital]

Admission and discharge procedures are prominent aspects in the assistential care of hospitalized patients. A great deal of attention has been paid to the reasons why they stay overtime when they apparently are ready for discharge. Lab routine delays and other technical difficulties have been traditionally blamed for failing to operate on schedule. However, even when studies are completed and diagnosis and treatment performed, the patient still remains overtime. This paper presents a research on discharge from a medical ward of a general hospital. According to rules, they were not supposed to stay more than two weeks, time enough for usual diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. However, 18 out of 121 patients were exceeding the limit and were subject to the present investigation. The Medical-Psychological Interconsult was the research instrument. The patient, the family, the doctor and the nurses were interviewed in each case. In every one of the 18 cases, problems were found in the doctor-patient relationship, as well as other difficulties in different institutional levels. The value of a multidisciplinary approach in problems of this kind is emphatically stated (clinicians, psychologists and medical auditors).