Managing Patient and Client Intake and Discharge

Managing Patient and Client Intake and Discharge

There are two basic steps to recording a patient or client's admission:

  1. Create a Contact record for the patient or client
  2. Create an Admission and Discharge record (used for patients only)

Create a Contact record 

In Sumac, the Contact record is where you begin. The Contact record allows you to record all the biographical information about clients and patients. For more information on creating a Contact record, click here.


Basic tab

Start by recording the client/patient name, address, date of birth, gender, marital status, and what type of contact they are (i.e. client or patient. Other Contact Types might include funder, sponsor, Board Member, etc.). Contact type is an important field in Sumac. For more information on Contact Types, use this link.


Residential Address/Business Address

Record the client/patient address information on the appropriate tab.

Create an Admission and Discharge record

To complete an admission for a new patient, go to their History tab. Click Add to Contact and then select Admission and Discharge from the available options.


In the Admission and Discharge record, be sure to record:
  1. The patient's admission date and time
  2. Where the patient was Admitted from (e.g. hospital, home, long-term care)
  3. Their PPS at Admission

Historical records such as Admission and Discharge, PPS Measurement, and Program Usage records will always be accessible from the Contact's record, on the History tab unless deleted by a user. 

Your Sumac Administrator can edit user permissions to prevent accidental manipulation or deletion of Program Usage records.

Reminders for Patient and Client Intake

The Hospice Case Management module comes with a built-in Reminder called Patient Intake Action Plan.  If you set this action plan on a newly created Contact record when a patient is admitted, the Reminder Action Plan will automatically remind you of each action you need to complete in the intake for that patient, like checking the patient's PPS, setting up a meeting with the patient's health care team to discuss their care plan, and convening a palliative care conference. 

When users log in to Sumac, Sumac will highlight any reminders assigned to them in their Reminders list.

To assign the Patient Intake reminder to an incoming patient:
  1. From the patient's contact record, go to their History tab, and click Add to Contact, then click Reminder.

  2. Choose Use Action Plan, then select the Patient Intake Action Plan from the drop-down list, and OK.
  3. Assign the Action Plan to the appropriate user.

  4. If you have completed any of the steps in the Action Plan already, put an X next to those steps to indicate they are done. 

  5. Select the step of the Action Plan that should be completed next, and set the Bring Forward Date to indicate how far in advance you would like to receive a reminder to complete this step.

  6. If needed, add any other information that would be helpful to users working with this Action Plan, like including additional Notes, or defining your desired Planned Completion Date for this Action Plan.

  7. Click OK to save this reminder.
If you have other processes or workflows you want your team to follow, Action Plans are a fantastic way to guide your users through the right list of steps.

You can create your own Action Plans to suit your organization's needs for client management, volunteer onboarding, fundraising, and donor stewardship, and much more! 

Discharge

At discharge, go to the History tab and double-click the Admission and Discharge entry to open it. Complete the Discharge portion of the record: date and time of discharge, the patient PPS at discharge, and where the patient was discharged to (e.g. home, hospital, death).  

Death Pronouncement

Death Pronouncement details are recorded in a similar fashion to Discharge. Double-click the Admission and Discharge record on the History tab to record time of death, cause of death, the practitioner who pronounced death, and who completed the death certificate.


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