test Providing a disease management plan upon patient discharge from hospital. A Literature Review|Health & Research Journal HealthResJ, health, medicine, nursing, research https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/HealthResJ/sitemap

Providing a disease management plan upon patient discharge from hospital. A Literature Review


Published: Oct 1, 2025
Keywords:
Nursing planning post-hospital care quality of life health status elderly home care needs
Georgios Palaiologos Narliotis
Garifalia Chatzina
Vlasia Katsavochristou
Panagiota Manthou
Abstract

Background: Providing a post-hospital disease management plan is an important nursing approach for some patient groups in the elderly population. However, the features and needs of persons after hospitalization impact the effectiveness of care offered after they return home. This review examines the effectiveness of illness management plans during patient discharge.


Method and Material: The review encompassed relevant studies published between 2017 and 2021, identified via targeted keyword searches in international databases(PubMed, Scopus, Evidence-Based Nursing, Clinical Evidence)and focused on previously hospitalized individuals aged 65 and above.


Results: The results indicated that the majority of individuals over 65 discharged from healthcare institutions face adaptation issues upon returning home, due to specific characteristics developed or observed during hospitalization and the immediate post-hospital period. Notable examples include severe cognitive decline in 45.4%, lack of family support in 55.8%and social isolation in 48%. Implementing post-hospital disease management plans appears effective for patients with mild disorders (while 23.7% of individuals with severe disorders prefer standard nursing care). Additionally, these interventions, models, and designs can reduce readmission rates by 1.7% within 30 days of discharge and improve end-of-life care content (after six months, an improvement in the agreement rate between patients and family regarding end-of-life decisions was recorded).


Conclusions: The disparity in treatment for the elderly population between healthcare facilities and the community highlights the necessity of establishing post-hospital disease management strategies to mitigate unexpected readmissions and improve end-of-life care.

Article Details
  • Section
  • Reviews
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
References
Urbietė, Lina, VitaLesauskaitė, andJūratėMacijauskienė. "Discharge planning and home care needs assessment for older patients in a nursing hospital." Medicina 56.2 (2020): 60.
Provencher, Véronique, et al. "Supporting at-risk older adults transitioning from hospital to home: who bene-fits from an evidence-based patient-centered dis-charge planning intervention? Post-hoc analysis from a randomized trial." BMC geriatrics 20.1 (2020): 1-10.
Gardner, Rebekah L., et al. "Reducing hospital read-missions through a skilled nursing facility discharge intervention: A pragmatic trial." Journal of the Ameri-can Medical Directors Association 21.4 (2020): 508-512.
Chan, Helen Yue-Lai, et al. "Effects of a nurse-led post-discharge advance care planning programme for community-dwelling patients nearing the end of life and their family members: a randomised controlled tri-al." International journal of nursing studies 87 (2018): 26-33.
Mabire, Cédric, et al. "Meta‐analysis of the effective-ness of nursing discharge planning interventions for older inpatients discharged home." Journal of ad-vanced nursing 74.4 (2018): 788-799.
Fox, Mary T., et al. "Effectiveness of early discharge planning in acutely ill or injured hospitalized older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis." BMC geriatrics 13.1 (2013): 1-9.
Zhu, Qin‐Mei, et al. "Effectiveness of nurse‐led early discharge planning programmes for hospital inpa-tients with chronic disease or rehabilitation needs: a systematic review and meta‐analysis." Journal of clini-cal nursing 24.19-20 (2015): 2993-3005.
Hayajneh, Audai A., Issa M. Hweidi, and Milian W. Abu Dieh. "Nurses' knowledge, perception and practice toward discharge planning in acute care settings: A systematic review." Nursing open 7.5 (2020): 1313-1320.
King, Lindy, et al. "A mixed methods thematic review: Health‐related decision‐making by the older person." Journal of clinical nursing 27.7-8 (2018): e1327-e1343.
Pellet, Joanie, et al. "Nursing discharge teaching for hospitalized older people: A rapid realist review." Jour-nal of Advanced Nursing 76.11 (2020): 2885-2896.
Mora, Kathlyen, et al. "Nurse practitioner‐led transi-tional care interventions: An integrative review." Jour-nal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners 29.12 (2017): 773-790.
Galvin, Eileen Catherine, Teresa Wills, and Alice Coffey. "Readiness for hospital discharge: a concept analysis." Journal of advanced nursing 73.11 (2017): 2547-2557.
Popejoy, Lori L., et al. "Testing Re-Engineered Dis-charge Program Implementation Strategies in SNFs." Clinical Nursing Research 30.5 (2021): 644-653.
Leung, Doris Yin Ping, et al. "A video‐supported nurse‐led advance care planning on end‐of‐life deci-sion‐making among frail older patients: Protocol for a randomized controlled trial." Journal of advanced nursing 75.6 (2019): 1360-1369.
Most read articles by the same author(s)