Patients with severe stroke frequently present with substantial impairments but are often not prioritised for post-discharge rehabilitation. There is a need to determine where these patients are discharged to in order to facilitate appropriate allocation of post-discharge pathway resources.

The present study aimed to describe the discharge pathways of patients with severe stroke and to identify predictors of discharge destination for these patients.

A descriptive, retrospective design was utilised to determine the discharge destination for 770 patients with severe stroke in Queensland, Australia. Binomial logistic regression was used to determine the variables that predicted discharge destination.

The results indicated that 58.44% of patients were discharged home (n = 450). Age, length of stay, discharge ward and geographical region emerged as significant predictors of discharge destination. The full model containing all predictors was statistically significant and, as a whole, explained 36.50% of the variance in discharge destination.

These results highlight the importance of these variables in influencing the outcomes of patients with severe stroke, which may assist post-hospital discharge services in allocating resources for patients with severe stroke.