- A. If the hospice care program does not provide inpatient hospice services directly, the hospice care program shall have a written transfer agreement with a hospice care program which provides those services.
- B. The hospice care program shall provide adequate and appropriate information about the patient and family at the time of transfer or discharge.
C. When a patient and family transfers from one hospice care program to another or from home-based service to inpatient service, or vice versa, the current care provider shall provide a written summary of:
- (1) The services being provided;
- (2) The specific medical, psychosocial, spiritual, or other problems that require intervention or follow-up; and
- (3) Any scheduled follow-up by a current interdisciplinary care team member.
D. The hospice care program shall document the specific reasons for transferring or discharging a patient from its program. These reasons may include:
- (1) The patient moves from the service area;
- (2) There is a change in terminal status;
- (3) The patient and family are unwilling to comply with the interdisciplinary plan of care or consistently act in a way which compromises the standards of care;
- (4) Issues of patient safety cannot be resolved;
- (5) Issues of staff safety cannot be resolved; or
- (6) Patient and family desire for discharge.
- E. The hospice care program shall prepare a written discharge summary which shall be provided to the patient or the patient's family before the patient's discharge.
- F. Before discharge, the hospice care program shall assess the patient's and family's continuing care needs and make referrals to appropriate services.
Authority: Health-General Article, §§19-903 and 19-907, Annotated Code of Maryland
Effective date: October 2, 1989 (16:19 Md. R. 2104)
Regulations .01—.16 repealed and new Regulations .01—.28 adopted effective August 10, 1998 (25:16 Md. R. 1274)
Regulation .04B amended effective August 29, 2016 (43:17 Md. R. 953); March 13, 2017 (44:5 Md. R. 292)