International Progress and Understanding of Discharge Planning / 中国康复理论与实践

ABSTRACT

With the social development and the transformation of medical model, providing patients with continuous services and seam-less transfer between different medical institutions, namely continuity care, is inevitable. Discharge planning take patients as the center and patient's needs as the guidance. Patients and their families should actively take part in the plan. Through multi-disciplinary and multi-institu-tional cooperation, patients can continue to enjoy health services after discharge. Discharge planning is the basis of continuous medical ser-vice. This article summrized the background and situation of discharge planning in the United States, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Japan, India, South Africa, and Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland in China. When heavy medical burden, aging, im-balence between supply and demand occurred, discharge planning could be helpful to make rational use of medical resources, save medical costs, guarantee the quality of medical service continuity, avoid the occurrence of adverse events after discharge and improve the patients' function and quality of life. This article reviewed group members, time, institutions and process of discharge planning in order to provide ev-idence-based basis for the development of discharge planning in China.