Hospital Discharge Planner Express Request for Calgary Patients

What makes a request fast

Most of the delay in a discharge order is a second round of phone calls to fill gaps. These five details, given up front, remove almost all of them.

• Full delivery address with community: it tells us which route and time slot we can offer, particularly for addresses outside Calgary.
• Home access: no steps, steps at the entry, an elevator building, or a walk-up with no elevator. A bariatric bed going up a walk-up needs a different crew plan than a bungalow with a level entry.
• Patient weight range: under 300 lb, 300 to 450 lb, 450 to 600 lb, or over 600 lb. Without it we can’t confirm a bed or lift, because rated capacities differ by model and bariatric beds carry separate patient maximums.
• Equipment list: tick each item on the form (bed type, pressure mattress, lift, lift chair, ramp) and use the notes for sling size, pressure injury risk level and where the bed should go.
• Family contact: a name, a phone number that will be answered, and who will be at the home to let us in. This is the detail most often missing, and the one that most often holds a delivery up.

Stock confirmation and holding equipment for a date

The callback is where certainty comes from. We tell you which model we can send, whether it is rated for the patient’s weight, and a delivery window. If the item you asked for isn’t available, we say so on that call and offer what is, so the team can decide rather than finding out the day before.

When the discharge date is set a few days out, we reserve the confirmed equipment against that date. You don’t need to resend the request as the date approaches; call us if anything changes. How a hold relates to the start of the monthly rental is something we explain to you and the family on the callback, before anything is booked.

When discharge is delayed or moved up

Delayed: call or email as soon as the team knows. If the equipment has not gone out, we move the delivery to the new date. If it is already set up in the home, the family can keep it there for the patient’s arrival, or we can collect it and return when the new date is firm. We talk the options through with the family.

Moved up: call rather than sending a new form, because a phone call reaches us faster. Give the new date and time of day. If the equipment is in stock and the family can be home, an earlier delivery is often possible; if it isn’t, we tell you straight away so the team can plan around it.

Late-day and weekend discharges

We don’t publish a cut-off time, because what we can do on a given afternoon depends on stock, crew and distance. The single thing that most improves the odds is calling as early as possible, ideally when the discharge is first discussed rather than when it is signed.

If a Friday or weekend discharge looks likely, send the request early in the week with the date marked as expected. Choose "Not confirmed" for the time of day if you don’t know it yet. A request that is already on file, with stock confirmed and the family contacted, is far easier to deliver on a short turnaround than one that arrives late in the day.

Palliative discharges

When a patient is going home for end-of-life care, we give the setup priority and try to have the bed in before they arrive. Tell us in the notes that the discharge is palliative; you don’t need to give a diagnosis.

The usual order is a full-electric hospital bed, a pressure mattress if the team has flagged skin risk, and a patient lift if transfers need one. We place the bed where the family wants it, often a main-floor living room so the person is not cut off from the household, and we show whoever is providing care how to raise and lower the bed, including when the power is out.

AADL can fund a homecare bed for a client who is palliative, with an estimated six months to end of life, and who wishes to remain at home. That goes through an AADL authorizer and a vendor holding an AADL agreement, and AADL doesn’t reimburse rentals, so families often rent for the first days while that is arranged. When the equipment is no longer needed, the family calls us and we collect it at a time that suits them.

Hospitals patients come home from

We deliver to homes across Calgary and the surrounding towns for patients discharged from any of these hospitals. The form lists them so we know where the patient is and what distance the family is travelling home. We have no affiliation with the hospitals or Alberta Health Services; we simply work to the discharge date the care team sets.

• Foothills Medical Centre, NW Calgary
• Peter Lougheed Centre, NE Calgary
• Rockyview General Hospital, SW Calgary
• South Health Campus, SE Calgary
• High River General Hospital, High River
• Strathmore District Health Services, Strathmore
• Oilfields General Hospital, Black Diamond in Diamond Valley

Funding questions at discharge

AADL does not pay for short-term rentals, including recovery after surgery, so most patients going home on a rental pay privately or claim through a workplace or individual plan. Many plans ask for a physician’s prescription or written recommendation and an itemized receipt; we provide itemized receipts that show the equipment and rental period.

If the admission relates to a WCB claim, WCB Alberta must approve equipment before it is rented, so the WCB case manager needs to be involved first. Mark the funding field as "Not yet known" if the family hasn’t decided; it won’t slow the stock callback.