Episodes reviewed
0
Sample data
Overall compliance
—
Target ≥ 90%
Weekend discharge identified
—
Identified before the weekend
Action owner documented
—
Named owner for outstanding tasks
Aim
To assess whether weekend and bank-holiday discharge planning is reliable, safe, coordinated and action-focused, with clear ownership of outstanding tasks and documented reasons where discharge is delayed.
Standards
NHS England model discharge pathway · NICE NG27 · NICE QS136 · local weekend discharge policy (local target ≥ 90%)
Sample
Target sample 60 weekend or bank-holiday discharge planning episodes across participating wards, departments, specialties and services. Pseudonymised only — no direct patient identifiers.
Project type
Clinical Audit
Clinical theme: Patient Flow · Discharge Quality · Documentation — system metadata, not editable.
CQC domains
Safe · Effective · Responsive · Well-led
Assigned automatically — read only.
Patient flow project
Yes
Ward care · Discharge planning · Discharge delays · Specialty inpatient care · Pharmacy · Community services · Virtual ward
Tool workflow
Step 1
Project setup
Confirm scope, wards, departments, specialties, services, leads, local policies and audit cycle.
Step 2
Team
Add supervisors, contributors, discharge, pharmacy, therapy and governance leads.
Step 3
Inclusion / exclusion
Review who is in scope and the 36 audit criteria.
Step 4
Data collection
Structured form for each weekend or bank-holiday discharge planning episode.
Step 5
Dashboard
Compliance, barriers, delays, area comparison and trends.
Step 6
Findings
Interpret results, good practice and gaps.
Step 7
Improvement
Actions, PDSA cycles, sustainability and re-audit plan.
Step 8
Export centre
Editable Word, PowerPoint, Excel, governance and ARCP outputs.
Step 9
Re-audit / follow-up
Compare cycles and plan the next measurement period.
Add an episode
Open the structured data collection form.
Plan improvement
PDSA cycles, actions and re-audit plan.
Generate outputs
Word, PowerPoint, Excel, governance and ARCP evidence.
Clinical safety note
This tool supports local audit, quality improvement and operational governance review. It does not make discharge decisions and does not replace clinical judgement, criteria-to-reside review, local discharge policy, medicines reconciliation, pharmacy advice, therapy assessment, safeguarding procedures, Mental Capacity Act requirements, social care processes, community pathways, weekend escalation arrangements, specialist advice or emergency escalation pathways. Any clinical deterioration, safeguarding concern, capacity concern, unsafe discharge concern, medication safety concern, unresolved urgent action or patient safety risk must be escalated according to local policy. Do not enter patient names, NHS numbers, hospital numbers, full dates of birth, addresses or other direct identifiers.