Hospital discharge can feel strangely rushed.
For days, your parent or loved one may have had nurses checking on them, medications being given on schedule, meals arriving, vital signs being monitored, and someone available when there was a question.
Then suddenly you hear, “They’re going home today.”
And now you’re trying to listen to instructions, collect belongings, understand medication changes, arrange transportation, figure out follow-up appointments, and remember everything you need to do once you get home.
If you’re the family caregiver, discharge day is not just about getting someone out of the hospital. It is about making sure you understand what happens after you leave.
You do not need to become a nurse overnight. You do need to know what information you have been given, what still needs to be clarified, and who to contact when questions come up.
Start Asking Questions Before Discharge Day
Whenever possible, do not wait until your loved one is dressed and sitting in a wheelchair by the door to start asking questions.
As soon as you know discharge is being discussed, start finding out what the plan may involve.
Ask what you should expect at home. Will there be new medications? Follow-up appointments? Equipment? Home health services? Changes in activity or daily routines?
You may not get every answer immediately. Plans can change during a hospital stay. The goal is simply to start gathering information before everything is happening at once.
Keep a running list of questions as you think of them. Discharge day can be hectic, and it is remarkably easy to forget the question that seemed impossible to forget the night before.
Get the Discharge Instructions in Writing
Before leaving the hospital, make sure you have the discharge paperwork provided by the hospital and understand where to find the important information.
Read through it before you leave if possible.
If something does not make sense, ask.
You may want to know:
- What follow-up care has been recommended?
- Are there appointments that have already been scheduled?
- Are there appointments you need to schedule yourself?
- Are there instructions about activity, diet, wound care, equipment, or other care at home?
- Are there symptoms or changes the hospital wants reported?
- Who should you contact if you have a question after getting home?
- Under what circumstances were you instructed to seek urgent or emergency care?
Do not be embarrassed to ask someone to explain something again.
Hospital staff use medical terminology every day. You don’t.
“Could you explain what that means once we get home?” is a perfectly reasonable question.
Pay Particular Attention to Medication Changes
Medication information deserves its own careful review.
Your loved one may leave the hospital taking something different from what they were taking when they arrived. A medication may have been added, stopped, temporarily held, or changed.
Do not rely on memory.
Compare the discharge medication information with the medication list you had before the hospitalization. If something is different and you do not understand why, ask the appropriate healthcare professional before making assumptions.
For each medication on the discharge information, make sure you understand the instructions you have been given.
Also find out whether any new prescriptions have already been sent to the pharmacy or whether you have been given prescriptions that still need to be filled.
Once you are home, update the medication information you keep for your loved one so you are not accidentally working from an outdated list.
Know What Follow-Up Needs to Happen
Leaving the hospital usually does not mean the entire medical issue is finished.
There may be follow-up appointments with a primary care provider or specialist. There may be tests, lab work, therapy, home health visits, or other services included in the discharge plan.
Before leaving, determine what has already been arranged and what is still your responsibility to arrange.
Write it down.
If someone says, “Follow up with cardiology,” you may need more information. Has the appointment been scheduled? If not, when were you instructed to call? Which office? Is there paperwork or information you need to bring?
The more you can clarify before leaving, the fewer loose ends you will be trying to untangle later.
Find Out About Equipment and Supplies
If your loved one will need equipment or supplies at home, find out how those are being handled.
Depending on the situation, this might involve a walker, wheelchair, bedside commode, oxygen equipment, wound-care supplies, or another item related to the discharge plan.
You don’t need to guess what someone needs. Follow the recommendations provided by the healthcare team.
What you do need to know is whether something has been ordered, who is providing it, when it is expected to arrive, and who to contact if it does not.
If your loved one cannot safely manage at home without a particular item or service, raise that concern with the discharge team before leaving the hospital.
Think About Getting Home — Literally
Sometimes everyone concentrates so much on the medical paperwork that nobody thinks about the actual trip from the hospital room to the bedroom at home.
How is your loved one getting home?
Can they get into the vehicle you are using?
Are there stairs at home?
Will someone be available to help them get settled?
Has anything changed about their mobility since they were admitted?
You don’t have to solve medical or mobility problems yourself. But if something about getting your loved one home or safely into the house concerns you, tell the hospital team before discharge.
“I’m not sure how we’re going to manage this at home” is important information.
Understand Who Is Doing What
Hospital discharge can involve several people and organizations, which makes it easy to assume somebody else is handling something.
Try to identify who is responsible for each next step.
Maybe the hospital arranged home health.
Maybe you have to call the primary care office.
Maybe a medical equipment company is supposed to contact you.
Maybe a prescription is waiting at the pharmacy.
Maybe a family member agreed to stay with your parent for the first night.
Write these things down rather than relying on everyone to remember their part.
A simple list of what needs to happen, who is handling it, and whether it has been completed can prevent a surprising amount of confusion.
Keep Important Information Together
Discharge paperwork has an impressive ability to disappear into a pile of mail approximately seventeen minutes after arriving home.
Give it a home immediately.
If several family members are helping, make sure the appropriate people know where the information is kept and how updates will be communicated.
You may also want to keep notes during the first several days after discharge. If questions come up, write them down so you have them available when speaking with the appropriate healthcare professional.
You do not need an elaborate system.
You need a system you can actually find when the phone rings and someone asks you a question.
Do Not Be Afraid to Say You Are Not Ready
Family caregivers sometimes feel as though they are supposed to smile, nod, collect the paperwork, and somehow figure everything out once they get home.
If you do not understand the discharge plan, say so.
If you have been told you will need to provide care that you do not know how to provide, say so.
If the plan depends on help, equipment, transportation, or services that you do not actually have, say so.
This does not mean you are refusing to help your loved one. It means the people developing the discharge plan need accurate information about what is realistically available at home.
The hospital cannot account for a problem it does not know exists.
Once You Get Home, Reorganize
You will probably not absorb every detail while standing in a hospital room.
Once everyone is safely home and things have settled, sit down with the discharge information again.
Put appointments on the calendar.
Update medication records.
Add important phone numbers to your contacts.
Put paperwork where it belongs.
Write down unanswered questions.
Make note of anything you were instructed to arrange.
This second review can turn a stack of discharge papers into an actual plan.
A Hospital Discharge Is a Transition, Not Just an Exit
Getting someone home is only one part of hospital discharge.
The larger goal is making the transition from hospital care to whatever comes next as organized and understandable as possible.
You do not have to remember everything. You do not have to know everything. And you certainly do not have to pretend you understand instructions that are unclear.
Ask questions. Write things down. Keep the paperwork together. Clarify medication changes. Know what follow-up is expected. Find out who to contact when questions arise.
Then, once you are home, take a little time to put all of that information into a system that works for you.
Because when you’re caring for someone after a hospital stay, “I know exactly where that information is” is a whole lot better than “I know they gave me a piece of paper about that somewhere.”
Quiet Harbor Care provides practical caregiving information and organizational resources for family caregivers. This article is for educational and organizational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Questions about an individual’s medical care or discharge instructions should be directed to their healthcare professionals.