What is “Discharge home after DTA” in ED admissions and how do I see it?
If a patient has a Decision to Admit (DTA) but never reaches a ward, SystemView codes this as “Discharge home after DTA”.
ℹ️ Please note: This is only relevant for SystemView environments where Discharge home after DTA is calculated.
If you cannot see “Discharge home after DTA” within Departure Destination Code filters in your Emergency Department components, this is not applicable to your environment.
What does “Discharge home after DTA” mean?
“Discharge home after DTA” is a SystemView code used when a Decision to Admit (DTA) has been made, but the patient is not admitted to a ward and instead goes home from ED. A DTA still counts as an “admission”, even if the patient never reaches a ward.
This is a SystemView-assigned code (not a source-system code).
How admissions are counted across ED components
In ED Trends components, “admissions” generally include both:
- patients admitted to a ward and
- patients who had a DTA but never reached a ward (Discharge home after DTA)
Where you can see patients discharged home after DTA
| Component | How to find them |
| Trends > Admissions › | Use Departure Destination Code filter and select Discharge home after DTA to view just this cohort. You can also unselect this code if you want to exclude them from your admissions trend. |
| Trends > Pod Trends › | Click the Patient List button. Look at the Departure Code column — DTA patients who went home will show as Discharge Home After DTA. |
| Trends > Demand & Activity › | Click on any day, open Patient List, and check the ED Departure Destination Code column — DTA patients who went home will be labelled Discharge Home After DTA. |
💡 Tip: You can export any of the Patient Lists to Excel for further analysis. For example, if you want to calculate your ratios of admissions vs. admissions who were a Discharge Home after DTA.
See: How do I export charts and tables from SystemView? ›
Why it matters
This group is still counted in ED admission numbers.
If your admission counts look higher than expected, these DTA-without-ward patients are often the reason.