This quick guide aims to support local health and social care systems to reduce the time people spend in hospital, when they are ready to depart and no longer need acute care, but are delayed whilst making decisions about or making arrangements for their ongoing care. This should be read alongside the 2015 NICE guidance ‘Transition between inpatient hospital settings and community or care home settings for adults with social care needs’.People’s physical and mental ability and independence can decline if they are spending time in a hospital bed unnecessarily, and they are also at risk of acquiring hospital acquired infections. For people aged 80 years and over, 10 days spent in a hospital bed equates to 10 years of muscle wasting. Severely ill patients may be unable to access services, if hospital beds are occupied with patients whose care can be safely managed in another place.
Ideally, people should make decisions about their long-term care outside of hospital, either in their own home or in an interim bed, where further recovery and assessments can happen in a way that their true long term needs are understood.
This guide has been produced by stakeholders [including hospital discharge teams; local authority adult services commissioners; continuing healthcare commissioners; independent care sector providers, including voluntary and housing sectors; patients; and carers] and provides:
• A checklist for local areas to use to identify areas for improvement;
• Information on existing solutions to common problems, including links to useful resources;
• A template policy and template patient letters to be adopted locally.
Here's the link to the document - http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/keogh-review/Documents/quick-guides/Quick-Guide-supporting-patients-choices.pdf