When you’re a patient, being discharged from the hospital after a treatment or procedure can be a stressful experience for you and your loved ones. There may be follow-up visits with a specialist or surgeon, along with trips to your primary care doctor’s office to inform them about any procedures that were performed on you.
To make the transition from hospital to home a smoother one, hospitals now use electronic health record systems to store all your medical information conveniently in one place so that your providers can easily access it.
How to Prepare for Follow-up Visits
While serving a critical role within your overall recovery process, your primary care provider can answer questions about your condition, treatment options, medicines, and follow-up care.
Here’s how to prepare for follow-up visits with your primary care doctor:
- Bring your prescription bottles or a list of medications with you, along with the dosages.
- Compile a prioritized list of questions or concerns if there isn’t time to ask them all.
- Bring a pen and notebook to jot down important information so you won’t forget any of their instructions.
You can also invite an informal caregiver, like a friend or family member, to sit in during the appointment so they can take notes and record instructions. If you have a newer cellphone, use it to record the doctor’s directions and any answers to questions you might have.
Where Will My Recovery Take Place?
Upon being discharged from the hospital, your recovery plan will likely include therapy and other rehabilitation services. Depending on the level and type of care you need, those services may be provided in various settings.
Skilled nursing care centers
This setting is often the next level of care when you are medically able to leave the hospital. Skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and rehabilitation centers provide both short-term and long-term nursing rehabilitation care and therapy.
Examples of skilled care include nursing and physical, occupational, or speech therapy, along with assistance for personal care and activities of daily living (ADLs). Skilled nursing care can include changing wound dressings, giving IV meds, and educating patients and their families about their loved one’s condition, care, and instructions.
Your private residence
Home health care includes services like skilled nursing and therapy, while home care refers to non-medical services that the patient receives in the comfort of their private residence. Within the next five to ten years, home care and home health will become less distinct as families look to “home health care providers” to look after their loved ones in a home environment.
As part of the continuum of care, these organizations serve a vital role while coordinating care with other providers as their staff visit the patient’s home over weeks or even months. Having access to the recovering patient allows in-home caregivers to get to know them and their family well, develop a good sense of the patient’s baseline level of health, record observations, and monitor symptoms and vitals from visit to visit.
Additional transitional care resources for those being discharged
Most communities offer transitional services so that patients can recover at home rather than in an institutional setting.
Examples of those community-based resources and services include:
- Area Agencies on Aging (Also called All Service Access Points)
- Meals on Wheels
- Transportation, including shuttles and paratransit services
- Adult day care programs
- Personal care services
- Homemaking and companionship services
Navigator teams are an innovative way to reduce readmissions for confused patients who leave the hospital feeling overwhelmed while struggling to manage lengthy medication lists and multiple outpatient appointments.
If you’d like to learn more about how to transition from hospital to home, read the book Thriving at Home: A Handbook for Preventing Hospital Stays by Dave Tasto. For more information about how to obtain a copy of Dave’s book, visit www.thrivingathomehealth.com.
Being Discharged? Contact Your Transitional Care Team in Northwest Boston
Transitioning from hospital to home can be overwhelming at times. When you need some assistance, contact Assisting Hands Home Care. While proudly serving seniors and families in communities Northwest of Boston, Assisting Hands provides professional in-home health services that allow our clients to remain safely and comfortably in their own homes.
From a few hours a day to around the clock, our client-centered services include transitional care, respite care, personal care, hospice care, Alzheimer’s and dementia care, Parkinson’s support, and Veteran’s support. At Assisting Hands, we deliver quality home care you can trust! To learn more about our dependable caregivers now or to schedule a consultation for a senior in our service area, please visit us at Assisting Hands Home Care of Boston Northwest.
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