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

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, ward structure changes, COVID-19-unit census, time into the COVID-19 pandemic, patient characteristics (age, sex, race/ethnicity), admission type (planned/unplanned, for COVID-19), and discharge destination (home, home health, skilled nursing). KEY RESULTS: Adult patients aged 30–45 (vs. young and older adult patients) and those being discharged to places other than home (e.g., skilled nursing facility) or to out-of-state residences report lower readiness (p < 0.05) on RHDS. Patient interviews revealed some gaps in discharge communication but, overall, patients expressed high discharge readiness and few concerns about how COVID-19 system changes impacted their discharge preparation. CONCLUSIONS: While there is some evidence that visitation policies and unit census may impact patient perceptions of discharge preparation, personal characteristics contributed more significantly to discharge readiness than system changes during COVID-19. Participant interviews demonstrated agreement, as most participants were discharged home and identified strong personal feelings of readiness for discharge. Clinical trials registration: ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT04248738, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04248738. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s44250-023-00060-8.