Audit-specific guidance and standards
National, professional and local sources for this project. Populated from the Guidance, standards and sources section in Project setup — add, edit or remove entries there to update this list.
Hospital discharge and community support guidance
Underpinning national guidance for discharge planning and community support.
NHS England / GOV.UK
National guidance
Open Model discharge pathway
Model pathway and pathways 0–3 definitions.
NHS England
National guidance
Open Discharge Ready Date — guidance, examples and FAQs
Definition of Discharge Ready Date and worked examples.
NHS England
Operational standard
Open Acute discharge situation report — technical specification
Reporting definitions used nationally for acute discharge data.
NHS England
Operational standard
Open NICE NG27 — Transition between inpatient hospital settings and community or care home settings for adults with social care needs
Guideline for safe transitions of care.
NICE
National guidance
Open NICE QS136 — Transition between inpatient hospital settings and community or care home settings
Quality standard for safe transitions.
NICE
National guidance
Open Local criteria-to-reside policy
Configure in Setup — local trust criteria-to-reside policy.
Trust
Local policy
Configure URL in Setup
Local discharge policy
Configure in Setup — local discharge policy.
Trust
Local policy
Configure URL in Setup
Local transfer of care hub policy
Configure in Setup — local Transfer of Care Hub policy.
Trust
Local policy
Configure URL in Setup
Local discharge to assess policy
Configure in Setup — local Discharge to Assess policy.
Trust
Local policy
Configure URL in Setup
Recommended Lazomis QI Resources
Published Lazomis QI articles selected for medically fit for discharge delay work.
Unlocking Hidden Capacity in NHS Discharge Pathways: A Practical Guide
Avoidable bed days, discharge barriers, pathway allocation and recovery of capacity — the closest match to this audit.
Hidden Capacity
Guide
Read Ward-Level Patient Flow: A Practical Guide for Optimising Care Delivery
Criteria to reside, estimated discharge dates, barrier identification, MDT coordination and escalation of unresolved delays.
Patient Flow
Guide
Read Improving Board Round Effectiveness for Enhanced Patient Flow
Confirming medically fit status, assigning pathways and owners, and escalating delays through the board round.
Patient Flow
How-to article
Read PDSA Cycles: A Practical Guide to Testing Change in Healthcare
Turning delay findings into tested change ideas such as barrier boards, TTO escalation or weekend discharge planning.
Quality Improvement
Guide
Read Tool categories
Website tags — for tool-library navigation.
Primary
Acute Medicine
General Medicine
Patient Flow
Discharge and Follow-up
Clinical Governance
Secondary
Frailty
Older People's Medicine
Ward-Based Care
Emergency Medicine / Urgent Care
Same-Day Emergency Care
Community Interface
Social Care Interface
Patient Safety
Documentation and Records
Service Improvement
Quality Improvement