Discharged from Hospital - and How to Not Go Back! | Elder Care ...

?Come the Fall of 2012 and into 2013 Hospitals and Physicans will be held accountable for preventable hospital re-admissions. Some penalties will be imposed n order to reduce these events. Careful planning post discharge is key to keeping you on the road to recovery and out of the Hospital.

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Discharging from the hospital and NOT going back in is a goal of nearly every hospital Discharge Planner,?Patient, Family Member, Medicare Home Health Agency and Private Duty Care.? Come October,2012 Hospitals will face a monetary penalty for preventable re admissions within 30 days of discharge.

Due to the exorbinant expenses, need for better discharge planning and follow through, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) will penalize doctors & hospitals that have a high thirty day readmission rate.

The goal is noble and necessary to maintain better health and reduce medical costs. However, once the patient leaves the hospital it is up to them and family to see the Discharge Plan is implemented. All those papers you get when you leave the hospital, and often end up in your laundry bag, or trash are the key discharge papers of your plan. It will have your condition, hospital stay dates, Medications, new prescriptions, equipment orders an recommended follow up visits to your doctor. Truly unfortunate these papers may never be looked at once the patient gets home.

The Hospital Discharge plan ner will likely go over instructions with you but you may be preoccupied with getting home, weak or under influence of medications and not really absorbing the information, or you may have confusion or a memory disorder. It is crucial to do the follow up orders to greatly reduce the chance of hospital readmission.

Boca Home Care Services strongly recommends someone is with you when you are being discharged. Someone to ask questions and review the information about new medications, prescriptions to be ordered or picked up, follow up doctor appointments or tests to be made. Diet restrictions, amount of physical activity to do or avoid and so forth.

It is really a combination of a few things which can make for a positive outcome? after discharge. Family, the Nurse from Medicare Home Health agency and even a home care aide. Between the three groups working together, hospital re-admission within the first thirty days can be almost eliminated. Family can make arrangements and appointments, the Registered Nurse will review the medical side of things and teach the family member and or aide how to proceed. They will also order in the physical or other therapies as needed and perform wound care and other treatments. The aide or caregiver can provide companionship, medication prompts, transportation to doctors, do the laundry, shopping and cooking in order to let you regain your strength.

The key pieces of a successful discharge are: review of Medications, Follow up visits to doctors and diet/exercise. The compliance of all three is where things usually fall apart and then the you are at risk of going back to the hospital.

If family is not available, they ought to work closely with the home care companies and consider hiring, even short term, a Care Manager who will even go to the doctor with you. It is crucial that you receive the discharge orders, understand them, make arrangements to do them and then follow through by doing them.? Hospitals and doctors may have to be made more accountable but once you leave the hospital, there isn?t much they an do to make you comply. If you need help to do so, then make arrangements with friends, family and hire it. Your health and well being are at stake.

Related posts:

1. My Aging Parent is Discharged From the Hospital, What Happens Next?
2. Transitioning from Hospital (or Rehab Center) to Home Successfully
3. Fall Prevention and Getting Back UP

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Source: http://www.bocahomecareservices.com/blog/discharged-hospital-stay/

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