Tips for staying out of the hospital
March 9, 2019
By: Mark Harvey
Email: harvemb@dshs.wa.gov
If you’re having to go into the hospital for something, what’s the first thing on your mind? Right: Getting through/surviving/recovering from whatever it is that’s putting you into the hospital.
And, when you’re actually in the hospital, what’s the first thing on your mind? Right! Getting OUT of the hospital!
So, would you care to hazard a guess as to what’s one of the biggest and most consistent points of screw-ups in our health care system?
Well, OK…
Sure, there’s that…
Yeah, point taken…
Alright, let me try again: What would you imagine is one of the junctures in our health care system where WE are most likely to screw-up, thus increasing the likelihood of landing BACK in the hospital?
RIGHT! Trying to get OUT of the hospital!
Specifically, we’re often so focused on getting-the-****-OUT-of here, that we don’t focus on what we have to do to STAY out of “here,” so we end up back in here. Think, discharge planning.
If we’re lucky, a Discharge Planner, or a nurse, or someone will come in and sit down with us and whomever it is that we have with us (and is going to help take care of us), and go over what to expect, what to do, what NOT to do, when to do or NOT do it, who to call for help, meds, what appointments to make, etc. ad infinitum. We nod, smile, say “OK’ or “…mm-hmm…” and, maybe, ask a few miscellaneous questions – But what we’re really thinking is, “Get me the **** OUT of here!”
So, we get the **** out of there, get home and screw-up, because we didn’t listen, or didn’t hear, or didn’t understand, or didn’t write it down or just don’t remember – And, when we screw-up at a time like this, almost nothing good will happen.
I have a suggestion: go to https://www.medicare.gov/Pubs/pdf/11376-discharge-planning-checklist.pdf OR go to www.medicare.gov and click on “Forms, Help & Resources,” scroll down to “Free Medicare publications, and enter “Your Discharge Planning Checklist” in the search area. What you’ll get is (Eureka!), “Your Discharge Planning Checklist,” a nifty little six-page checklist that will help you get through and keep track of all the stuff you’re supposed to do (or NOT do) in order to stay the **** OUT of there.
Yes, this is generated by Medicare, but it’s actually a darn good little checklist for anybody who’s going into the hospital for anything. And it’s free, so…
Print it. I would suggest that you print it, and actually read it, BEFORE you go into the hospital so that you have a chance to think about and understand it; hopefully, you’re going to have someone with you, and helping to take care of you after the hospitalization, so have her/him/them read it, too, because…
…we tend to not feel so great, when we’re in the hospital, so it might be smart to have someone who’s firing on all cylinders listening, asking questions and actually writing things down!
This isn’t rocket science, and the checklist isn’t written for Ph. D’s. It’s written for you and me, in understandable language and can genuinely help – If we let it. If some parts don’t apply, fine, but for the parts that do, take the time, get it right and write it down.
Not a computer person? OK, then call any of the numbers at the end of this column and ask a genuinely decent person to print one out and mail it to you. They will. For free. It’s what we do.
OR, you could just blunder headlong into a hospitalization, secure in the notion that everything will go swimmingly, and that you’ll emerge, magically armed with everything you need to know and do, including the wherewithal to do it. I admire your faith!
I’ll take the checklist.
Mark Harvey is the director of Information and Assistance for Olympic Area Agency on Aging. He can be reached at harvemb@dshs.wa.gov or 532-0520 in Aberdeen, (360) 942-2177 in Raymond or (360) 642-3634. FACEBOOK: Olympic Area Agency on Aging-Information & Assistance.