When Should You Discharge a Patient From Therapy?

Do you discharge a patient when they are no longer making progress or have reached their maximum rehab potential?

If you answered yes (which a lot of people do so don’t feel bad) make sure to keep reading.

That is not the appropriate time to discharge and you are doing your patient and yourself a disservice.

Your patient has the RIGHT to have therapy for as long as the therapy is SKILLED!

In Jimmo vs. Sebelius it was established that patients may continue to be eligible for rehabilitation services to progress, maintain or prevent deterioration of functional gains as long as it requires the SKILL of a therapist.

This does not mean that we keep our patients on forever but it also means you CANNOT discharge them because they have reached their rehab potential.

Instead we can only discharge them when they have stopped requiring the skill of a therapist. If a caregiver can do it then it is no longer skilled. (And it does not matter if they actually have a caregiver….it just depends if a caregiver could do it.)

So besides making sure you are not discharging patients early also make sure you are documenting the reason for discharge correctly…

Do not document patient has plateaued or reached max rehab potential but instead document that your patient is discharged because they no longer require the skill of a therapist.

And if you know other therapists that could use more ideas for client-centered treatment make sure to share this post and follow us and tag them on Instagram www.instagram.com/thenoteninjas

And if you haven't yet, make sure to download our FREE PDF with skilled care documentation tips HERE!

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