If a patient has recently been released from a hospital stay that qualifies them to participate in Transitional Care Management a user would first need to begin a "New Discharge" for the patient within ThoroughCare. This article will cover how a user is to go about beginning a new discharge from the patient view page.

To begin a new discharge, navigate to the search bar at the top of the Dashboard. Enter first name, last name, or EHR ID to find your patient.

From the "Patient Search" results page, a user can open the view page by selecting the patient's Name, EHR ID, or by clicking "View" under the Actions column.

Upon reaching the patient view page select the "Transitions" tab and click the "+New Discharge" button.

Once "+New Discharge" is clicked, the user will then be taken to the New Discharge modal. Take a second and look over the information that is to be entered by the user.

If the patient is a candidate for TCM services, click to check the "Patient was discharged and is a candidate for TCM services" checkbox.

Enter in the 'Admission Date' for when the patient was hospitalized.

The next step is to enter an 'Admission Reason.' This box is an open text entry field to describe the patient's admission reason.

If the patient is still in the process of being discharged, but a user would like to begin documenting the discharge, then a user may enter in an 'Anticipated Discharge Date' in the appropriate section.

The 'Anticipated Discharge Date' is not required, and the date entry field allows for future dates to be chosen. However, billing for TCM cannot be completed without a discharge date and admission date for the patient.

NOTE: TCM cannot be billed with only an anticipated discharge date.

Next, add the date of discharge by clicking the box located below "Discharge Date".

Click to select the date in which the patient was discharged through the pop-up calendar.

NOTE: Notice that future dates are non-clickable. This is because a user cannot begin a discharge for a patient that has not yet been discharged from their care facility.

NOTE: Either a 'Discharge Date' or an 'Anticipated Discharge Date' is necessary in order to save the new discharge for TCM.

Next, record the name of the facility from which the patient was discharged from.

Note: A facility must first be created on the "Discharge Location" page to be chosen from the "Discharged From" dropdown. To learn how to create a new discharge location click here.

Once clicked, a dropdown box will appear. Click, or begin typing to narrow the list of facilities down. Click to select the facility the patient was discharged from.

Finally, determine the level for 'Complexity of Decision Making' using one of the three radio buttons to select from High, Medium, or Low.

Note: If you are unsure of the Complexity of Decision Making level, there is a helpful link to help you determine which level to choose for your patient.

Whenever the user has finished filling out the "Enter a new discharge for TCM" form, remember to click the "Save" button located in the bottom right-hand corner of the modal.

Once "Save" is clicked the new discharge will be created.

Note: The TCM requirements must be completed by the deadlines given if TCM is to be billed.

You will be able to view a patient's status by navigating to the Patient View Page and selecting the "Transitions" tab.

From here, a user will see the new discharge displayed in the TCM table, highlighted below. Reference this section if the user would like to check the status of the patient's TCM.

To access other helpful ThoroughCare articles in the Knowledge Base or to get help from the ThoroughCare Support team members, click the ‘i’ icon in the top right corner of the software next to the username and use the appropriate link!