Objective. To validate patient and nurse short forms for discharge readiness assessment and their associations with 30-day readmissions and emergency department (ED) visits. Data Sources/Study Setting. A total of 254 adult medical-surgical patients and their discharging nurses from an Eastern US tertiary hospital between May and November, 2011. Study Design. Prospective longitudinal design, multinomial logistic regression analysis. Data Collection/Extraction Methods. Nurses and patients independently completed an eight-item Readiness for Hospital Discharge Scale on the day of discharge. Patient characteristics, readmissions, and ED visits were electronically abstracted. Principal Findings. Nurse assessment of low discharge readiness was associated with a six-to nine-fold increase in readmission risk. Patient self-assessment was not associated with readmission; neither was associated with ED visits. Conclusions. Nurse discharge readiness assessment should be added to existing strategies for identifying readmission risk.

Key Points Question What is the effect of adding structured nurse assessment of patient readiness for discharge to standard medical-surgical unit discharge practices on 30-day return to hospital? Findings In this multisite cluster randomized clinical trial, when patient self-assessments were combined with readiness assessment by nurses, high-readmission units showed a reduction in 30-day hospital returns. Mixed results were observed for nurse assessments only and for low-readmission units. Meaning Adding a structured discharge readiness assessment by the discharging nurse that includes patient self-assessment to standard practice for hospital discharge may reduce readmissions and emergency department or observation visits.

The adsorption capacity of a shale gas reservoir is mainly determined by the isothermal adsorption experiment. In this study, the building conditions and performances of seven single‐component and five multi‐component adsorption models were compared and analyzed. The results show that most shale gas reservoir adsorption characteristics obey those of type I on the macroscopic scale. The adsorption isotherms of single components can be described by the Langmuir‐Freundlich, Langmuir, and Toth models. The revised Langmuir, extended Langmuir, and the loading ratio correlation (LRC) models can be applied to binary‐component mixtures; and the extended Langmuir and LRC models perform best for shale gas. The obtained results might have an important promoting effect for modeling the shortage of shale gas.

There has been a proliferation of initiatives to improve discharge processes and outcomes for the transition from hospital to home and community-based care. Operationalization of these processes has varied widely as hospitals have customized discharge care into innovative roles and functions. This article presents a model for conceptualizing the components of hospital discharge preparation to ensure attention to the full range of processes needed for a comprehensive strategy for hospital discharge.

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Magnet hospitals operationalize discharge preparation differently. Recommended practices from national discharge initiatives are inconsistently used. RNs play a central role in discharge planning, coordination, and teaching.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of medication discrepancies during transitional care home visits and the association with emergency department (ED) visits. Using secondary data analysis, the relationships between in-home medication discrepancies and 30- and 90-day ED utilization were examined. For every in-home medication discrepancy, the odds of being admitted to the ED within 90 days increased by 31%. This brief intervention could add a valuable component to post-hospital transition management.

The discussion is framed using an adaptation of the Interdisciplinary Research Model to evaluate improvements in individual health outcomes, health systems, and health policy. Barriers and facilitators to designing, conducting, and translating interdisciplinary research are discussed. Implications for health system and policy changes, including the need to provide funding mechanisms to implement interdisciplinary processes in both research and clinical practice, are provided.