Inpatient Facility Coding & Compliance Alert

Question: What is the difference between a discharge and an acute care transfer?

Maine Subscriber

Answer: A discharge refers to releasing the patient from the hospital after his treatment at the hospital is determined to be complete. A discharge also may refer to a scenario where the patient dies in the hospital.

An acute care transfer occurs when the patient is transferred from one acute care IPPS hospital to another IPPS hospital for further related care. You may use a patient discharge code  02 (Discharged/transferred to other short term general hospital for inpatient care) here. If the patient leaves the hospital against medical advice but gets admitted in another IPPS hospital, consider this as an acute care transfer with patient discharge status code 07 (Left against medical advice or discontinued care).