The administrative and posthospital care outcomes of discharge planning: Preliminary results of an experimental intervention

Early and comprehensive discharge planning is a widely accepted and anticipated social work role. It is generally supposed that discharge planning has positive implications for both thehospital and the patient. A research project was designed to assess the effects of a staff developmentprogram aimed at instituting a comprehensive discharge planning model by social workers in ageneral hospital in Israel. One group of patients received social work services based on the discharge planning model. A comparison group of patients received the standard services provided bythe department. No differences between the groups were found in time elapsed before first social work contactor in length of stay. However, patients in the study group were likely to be released to a more appropriate and stable setting than were patients in the comparison group. Furthermore, there was a greater likelihood that their posthospital care plans involved a combination of services from both formal and informal settings. Implications of the findings are discussed as well asthe integration ofresearch into ongoing social work practice.