OASIS Alert

Education:

HERE'S HOW TO NAVIGATE THE DISCHARGE DATE DILEMMA

Question: The patient is admitted to home care and is transferred to the hospital during the episode. The agency keeps the episode open but the patient is not discharged back to the agency before the end of the episode. What date does the agency use as the discharge date?

A. The date found in M0906 on the transfer OASIS.
B. The date of the last billable visit.
C. The date the episode ends.
D. It depends on agency policy.

Answer: D. Your discharge date depends on agency policy, says consultant Lisa Selman-Holman with Denton, TX-based Selman-Holman & Associates. The OASIS Implementation Manual (Chapter 8, p. 8.118) instructs "the date of discharge is determined by agency policy or physician order," she notes.

When the patient's stay in the hospital extends beyond the end of the current epi-sode, the transfer OASIS you did is your final OASIS assessment for that episode, says OASIS consultant Deborah Chisholm with Redmond, WA-based OASIS Answers. The agency just needs to complete agency discharge paperwork, not OASIS data, she adds.

Warning: The discharge date can never be later than the end of the episode, experts agree.

Other Articles in this issue of

OASIS Alert

View All