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Putting a nurse practitioner  of discharges as part of an interprofessional team improved hospital throughput, according to a study. Published in the April issue of the Journal of Nursing Administration, the six-month study included 1,370 patients at two medical-surgical telemetry units with 32 and 36 hospital beds, respectively, in a community-based academic hospital. With the discharge nurse practitioner and interprofessional team in place, the hospital discharged 45% of patients within two hours of the order being written. Patient length of stay was reduced by 0.5 days. Before the nurse practitioner coordinated discharge, only 12.5% of patients were discharged within two hours of the order being written.