Locus of control and decision making for posthospital care.

Discharge planning involves making choices about the type and amount of posthospital care a patient will receive within the reality of resource constraints. Elderly patients discharged from an acute-care hospital vary in their reactions to this decision-making process and the degree to which they exert final control over the decision. Perceived lack of control over the decision is associated with posthospital psychological distress for patients with high levels of internal locus of control, but not for those whose expectations for internal control are low.