Question 1

Who should run this audit?

Accepted Answer

Acute physicians, geriatricians, discharge coordinators, integrated discharge teams, therapy leads, pharmacists, site management teams and QI leads are all well placed to run this audit. Include a named audit lead, a senior clinical sponsor, a discharge coordinator lead, and a governance/QI lead where possible.

Question 2

What permissions do I need?

Accepted Answer

Most trusts treat this as clinical audit / service evaluation and do not require ethics approval, but you must register the project with your local clinical audit or governance team before starting. Use only pseudonymised identifiers — do not enter NHS numbers, hospital numbers, names or dates of birth.

Question 3

How do I sample?

Accepted Answer

Use consecutive adult (≥ 16y) delay episodes where the patient became medically fit for discharge / no longer meets criteria to reside over a defined period. A sample of 30–50 per ward gives a reasonable point estimate; 100+ across the trust supports comparative analysis and ward-level breakdowns.

Question 4

What does the tool measure?

Accepted Answer

Whether adult inpatients who no longer meet criteria to reside have timely, documented, pathway-assigned discharge planning; whether Discharge Ready Date, pathway, action owner and escalation are documented; the reason for delay; and whether cross-organisation actions such as Transfer of Care Hub referral are completed.

Question 5

What happens after data collection?

Accepted Answer

The dashboard updates in real time. Use the Findings tab to interpret results, the Improvement tab to plan actions and PDSA cycles, and the Export centre to generate editable Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF, CSV and ARCP evidence outputs.

Question 6

Do I need to sign in to see the tool?

Accepted Answer

No. Authentication is handled at the main Lazomis QI website. Inside the tool you will already be in your authenticated workspace, or in demo mode with clearly labelled sample data.