Discharge

Why discharge

Outpatient clinicians are often not used to "discharging" a client: the record is left open even when treatment has ended or the client has stopped coming. But an open Episode states that the client is still under the organization's care — and its responsibility. Discharging after each Episode also keeps each period of care separate: the care for a substance problem in one Episode, the care for anxiety two years later in another.

The type of discharge is an outcome measure: "Treatment completed", "Client moved to another city", "Left before treatment was completed"... A high share of early leavers is information the organization can act on. The types are a lookup table (L_DischargeType, Admin › Lookup Tables).

Discharging a client

1. Click the Episode in the Episodes list › Discharge › Enter/Edit.
2. Discharge Date (today by default) and, if you wish, the Hour (e.g. 2:30 PM).
3. Type of discharge and Discharged by (you, by default).
4. The Discharge Summary (Import Note Text for a pre-defined text).
5. Tick Make the client inactive if the client will not come back to any Service.
6. Save.

What happens

• The Episode becomes inactive; its active authorizations end on the discharge date; its open client statuses end on the discharge date. All in one step, all in the audit trail.
• The Episode is locked: nothing can be added or changed in it (encounters, contacts, authorizations, statuses, medications...). View still works. A new admission = a New Episode on the Clerk screen.

Trainees and supervisors

When a trainee discharges a client, the Episode stays open and the discharge waits for the trainee's Supervisor (Supervision screen, Waiting for my review). The Supervisor opens it with Discharge › Enter/Edit, may write a Supervisor Addendum, and ticks Close the Episode of Care to complete the discharge.

PsyTrace checks

• Required: the Discharge Date and the Type.
• The date cannot be in the future, before the Episode started, or before its last encounter.
• A discharge can be corrected later by who discharged the client or by a System user (discharge fields only). A System user can also Undo Discharge: the Episode is active again (authorizations and statuses stay closed).