title: [Redesigning the hospital discharge process].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this article is to show that the redesign and planning process of hospital discharge advances the departure time of the patient from a hospital environment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Quasi-experimental study conducted from January 2011 to April 2013, in a local hospital. The cases analysed were from medical and surgical nursing units. The process was redesigned to coordinate all the professionals involved in the process. The hospital discharge improvement process improvement was carried out by forming a working group, the analysis of retrospective data, identifying areas for improvement, and its redesign. The dependent variable was the time of patient administrative discharge. The sample was classified as pre-intervention, inter-intervention, and post-intervention, depending on the time point of the study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The final sample included 14,788 patients after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The mean discharge release time decreased significantly by 50 min between pre-intervention and post-intervention periods. The release time in patients with planned discharge was one hour and 25 min less than in patients with unplanned discharge.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Process redesign is a useful strategy to improve the process of hospital discharge. Besides planning the discharge, it is shown that the patient leaving the hospital before 12 midday is a key factor.
authors.affiliation: Hospital Universitario de Burgos, Burgos, España. Electronic address: mamartinezram@gmail.com.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martínez-Ramos
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Medicina Clínica, Universidad Miguel Hernández, Elche, Alicante, España.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Flores-Pardo
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Salud Pública, Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, España.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Uris-Sellés
mesh_terms: D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D010351:Patient Discharge; D012189:Retrospective Studies
keywords: Alta hospitalaria; Calidad; Continuous quality management; Discharge planning; Gestión por procesos; Processes assessment; Redesign; Rediseño