Impact of COVID-19 visitation policies and hospital capacity on discharge readiness in medicine patients.

ABSTRACT:

Background

COVID-19 impacted the experience of being hospitalized with the widespread adoption of strict visitation policies to ensure healthcare worker safety. One result was decreased time of caregivers at the bedside of hospitalized patients.

Objective

To understand the impact of pandemic-related system effects on patient-reported discharge preparation.

Design

This mixed methods study included interviews with a sample of discharged patients during April 2020, and quantitative hospital data from April 2020 to February 2021.

Participants

616 patients completed a measure of discharge readiness on their day of discharge and 38 patients completed interviews about their discharge experiences.

Main measures

Readiness for discharge (RHDS), visitation policies

SUBMITTER: Wallace AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10689550 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature