1. Confirm local scope
In Project setup, set the audit cycle, period, sample size, target and the wards, departments, specialties and services in scope. Add your local weekend discharge, criteria-to-reside, criteria-led discharge, pharmacy, transport and safeguarding policy references.
2. Agree the sample
Select weekend or bank-holiday discharge planning episodes prospectively or retrospectively. Review the inclusion and exclusion criteria before collecting data, and record excluded episodes locally.
3. Collect data
Complete one form per episode. Use a pseudonymised episode reference only. Answer each of the 36 criteria as Yes, No, Not applicable or Unable to determine — only Yes and No count towards compliance.
4. Review the dashboard
Check overall and criterion-level compliance, barriers, delay days, safety concerns and variation by ward, department, specialty and service. Use filters to focus on specific weekend periods or patient groups.
5. Interpret findings
Use the Findings tab to record good practice, gaps, variation and governance implications alongside the automatically generated interpretation.
6. Plan improvement
Use the Improvement tab to record key gaps, causes, improvement aim, actions with owners and dates, PDSA cycles, sustainability plan and learning points.
7. Generate outputs
Use the Export centre to produce an editable Excel workbook, Word audit report, executive summary, governance report, PowerPoint presentation and ARCP evidence summary.
8. Re-audit
Plan and record the next cycle in Re-audit / follow-up, using the same criteria and tool version so results are directly comparable.
Data protection
Use a pseudonymised episode reference that can only be re-identified locally. Do not enter patient names, NHS numbers, hospital numbers, full dates of birth, addresses or free-text that could identify a patient, family member or individual member of staff. All live data is organisation-scoped and only visible to members of your own organisation workspace.
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.