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Healthcare Management vocabulary · Patient Flow and Capacity

Discharge

Meaning in healthcare management, with examples

/ˈdɪstʃɑːrdʒ/nounCore term

In healthcare management, discharge means: The point when a patient officially leaves hospital care, usually to go home, after the team decides they no longer need to stay.

In Turkish: taburcu, taburculuk, taburcu etme

How it is used

Used as a noun and a verb: patients are discharged home, to a care home or to another hospital. Managers track discharges before noon, delayed discharges and weekend discharges, because late discharges keep beds busy when new patients need them.

Example sentences

  1. If we discharged more patients before noon, the emergency department would not have to wait for beds.

  2. Her discharge was delayed because the pharmacy had not prepared her medicines.

Common collocations

  • discharge a patient
  • discharge home
  • delayed discharge
  • discharge before noon
  • discharge lounge
  • admissionThe process of formally accepting a patient into hospital so that they can stay for treatment, or one single case of this.
  • discharge planningPreparing early for a patient's safe exit from hospital, including medicines, follow-up appointments, equipment and support at home.
  • discharge summaryA document written when a patient leaves hospital that summarises the diagnosis, treatment, medicines and follow-up plan, mainly for the patient's family doctor.
  • length of stayThe number of days a patient spends in hospital from admission to discharge; the average across many patients is a key efficiency measure.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Patient Flow and Capacity

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.