How to Discharge a Patient

Discharging a patient removes them from a team's care. CAREFUL performs safety checks before discharge to ensure no outstanding actions will be orphaned, and warns you if team members will lose access to the patient.

You can discharge a patient if:

• You are a member of at least one team caring for the patient, OR
• You are an Administrator

Desktop:

1. Navigate to the patient's record by clicking their name from My Patients, My Organisation (Patients tab), or a Team view (Patients tab)

2. Click the dropdown menu button in the top-right corner of the patient header

3. Select Discharge from team from the menu

4. In the "Discharge patient" dialogue box that appears, select which team to discharge the patient from (if the patient belongs to multiple teams, choose from the From dropdown; if only one team, the team name appears as read-only text)

5. Click Discharge

6. Review the safety check result:

   All clear (green tick):

   • The patient has no outstanding actions and can be safely discharged
   • Click Yes to confirm, or No to cancel

   Blocking actions (warning):

   • A table shows actions that must be resolved before discharge
   • These actions are assigned to users who would lose access to the patient after discharge
   • You have two options:
     • Close all actions: Enter a closure reason in the text box (e.g., "Patient has gone home") and click Close all, then click Confirm on the next screen
     • Cancel and manually reassign or hand over the actions to users who will retain access, then try discharging again

   Warning (patient access loss):

   • You'll see a warning that team members will no longer be able to access this patient
   • Click Yes to proceed, or No to cancel

   Error:

   • If an error message appears (e.g., "This patient has pending referrals..."), click Close and resolve the issue before trying again

7. Once confirmed, the discharge completes automatically:

   • The dialogue box closes
   • The patient is removed from the team
   • If the patient was only in this team, their status becomes "Inactive"
   • Team members who only shared this team with the patient lose access to the patient record
   • The patient list refreshes to reflect the change

Mobile:

Follow the same steps, tapping instead of clicking. The dropdown menu opens as a full-screen action menu on mobile.

• Blocking actions explained: Actions block discharge when they're assigned to users who share ONLY the discharge team with the patient. After discharge, those users would have no teams in common with the patient, leaving the actions "orphaned"

• Before discharging: Check the patient's Actions tab to see if any tasks need reassigning or completing first

• Multiple teams: If a patient belongs to several teams, you must discharge them from each team separately. Discharging from one team doesn't affect their care in other teams

• Reactivating patients: If you accidentally discharge a patient who was only in one team (now Inactive), an Administrator can readmit them using the Readmit option from the patient's dropdown menu

• Pending referrals: You cannot discharge a patient who has pending referrals. The receiving team must first accept or reject the referral