Discharge Officer

To be responsible for discharge planning from the point of admission ensuring that discharges are expedited in a timely manner maximizing the use of hospital beds and reducing length of stay.

To work with the discharge team and multi disciplinary teams to ensure patients, relatives & health professionals both inside and outside the trust are all working together to achieve the same goal of safe and seamless discharge.

To liaise daily with medical staff & ward managers to review all patients supporting and facilitating discharge decisions and progress chasing any outstanding diagnostics and reviews.

To progress chase patients through their whole hospital journey and ensure patient's, relatives and colleagues are kept up to date with progress and delays.

Main duties of the job

To identify problems in relation to discharge process and initiate actions to resolve them in order to facilitate safe and efficient discharge.

Throughout the shift ensure that beds are used efficiently and appropriately, maximising the use of the departure lounge to support the emergency 4 hour target.

To liaise with the discharge planning team to ensure patients with complex needs have adequate community care packages in place to meet their individual needs.

To organise and coordinate with patients, relatives and various outside agencies the requirements of patients with complex discharge needs.

To report daily and escalate information relating to any delayed discharges and regularly review actions being taken to address the delays.

To progress chase each patient through their hospital stay ensuring diagnostics and results are delivered and reviewed in a timely manner.

Communicate with nursing & medical colleagues ensuring all staff

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A&E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics. You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology available.