Implications of Hoist Provision when Planning Discharge Home from an Acute Hospital

Occupational therapists within an 800-bed acute hospital identified that discharge planning involving hoist provision required attention. A decreasing length of stay and the absence of guidelines in this area led to an evaluation of practice. Standards were set in partnership with the multidisciplinary team. An audit process was started against these standards on 15 cases over a 4-month period. The audit process identified areas where changes could provide a consistent interdisciplinary approach to discharge planning.

The most useful tool to emerge from this evaluation of practice was seen as the proforma devised for an access home assessment in a risk assessment format. Feedback from subsequent staff supervision sessions has demonstrated that occupational therapists have been enabled to provide a uniform approach to discharge planning for this group of patients, in a time of ever-increasing pressure to speed discharges and abide by manual handling legislation. The article aims to disseminate the risk assessment to therapists and other health care staff in acute and community health care.