Objective To investigated the current status of discharge planning in tertiary hospitals in Hubei Province, and to provide suggestions for workflow improvement and regional practice model. Methods We conveniently selected head nurses or senior nurses from 417 wards in 19 tertiary hospitals in 17 prefectures and cities of Hubei Province. The nurses were surveyed regarding whether discharge planning was carried out in the department where they worked , and the details of discharge planning policy developing, how discharge planning was carried out, and result evaluation in the process, etc., were investigated. Results Among the 417 wards in 19 tertiary hospitals,only 24.22% of the wards had carried out discharge planning, of which 76.24% had an implementation team; more than 96.00% of the wards indicated that they had comprehensive needs assessment of the patients, provided discharge teaching, and conducted out-of-hospital follow-up, though 57.42% of the wards didn′t have standardized assessment tools or the tools were customized by themselves; only 48.51% of the wards provided discharge referral services; 71.29% of the wards had developed evaluation indicators for discharge planning, with the most used indicators being the number of patients receiving discharge planning services and the incidence of complications, and the least used indicators being satisfaction and work efficiency. Conclusion The rate of discharge planning practice needs to be enhanced, the assessment and evaluation awareness of the staff were strong, and the practice of discharge teaching and follow-up were frequently carried out, though the work specifications and mechanisms needs to be improved. It is necessary to further strengthen the practice of discharge planning, conduct evidence-based researches, improve inter-hospital linkage and multi-disciplinary cooperation mechanisms, define key tasks and related tools, and form a systematic and standardized practice system.