The Intervention Of Medical Social Work On The Problem Of Patient Retention

The problem of patients staying in hospital is a common challenge for hospitals at home and abroad.Patients staying in the hospital for a long time will not only waste medical resources,cause huge economic losses to the hospital,affect the medical safety,become a major safety hazard of the hospital,but also cause the increase of the risk of infection and short-term complications of patients,and aggravate the risk of death of patients.D Hospital has a serious problem of patient retention.Since 2014,the hospital introduced the social work Department to intervene in the problem of patient retention,and a mature intervention mode has been formed at present.Medical social workers mainly play the role of psychological and emotional support,resource connection and coordination in the intervention process,but they are faced with difficulties in the intervention process.This study adopted the case study method,took the social work Department of D Hospital as the research object,used the participatory observation method and interview method to collect data,and conducted semi-structured interviews with 6 medical social workers,MSW interns and nurses in the emergency department.The data were analyzed and processed by induction method,the problem of patient retention was analyzed from the perspective of medical social work,and the intervention mode of medical social workers was summarized.The study found that the retention of patients in the emergency department and emergency room of D hospital was the largest number,followed by the neurology department,and the retention of patients in the south hospital was more serious than that in the main department.Stranded patients were mainly middle-aged and elderly patients,stroke patients and patients with high social risk.The causes of patient retention include subjective and objective factors,and the problem of patient retention will have a negative impact on patients,patients’ families,departments and hospitals.Due to the needs of clinical departments and patients,medical social workers intervene in the problem of patient retention,and gradually clear professional boundaries in the cross-professional team cooperation.The intervention process of medical social workers for stranded patients is in line with the general process of social work practice,in which medical social workers meet the diversified needs of stranded patients by providing psychological support to the service objects,coordinating the internal resources of the hospital,assisting in rebuilding the social support network,and mining the information and resources of patients.During this time,medical social workers will face difficulties in establishing professional relationships,linking resources,and working with cross-professional teams.The implications of this study are as follows:It is suggested to expand the coverage of the combination of medical and nursing services and protect the life and health rights and interests of stranded patients after discharge;Medical social work still has a great service space in the emergency department,and it can be paid attention to and increased in the future.