What is discharge planning?

When you are an inpatient in a hospital, prior to leaving you will go through a process called discharge planning. This plan is based on your diagnosis and needs outside of the hospital. When you are looking for medical insurance quotes the various plans will cover certain home based care. Every patient admitted has a discharge plan. This plan can be as simple as a follow-up visit to your primary care physician a few weeks after discharge or it can be as complicated as home health visits and outpatient lab work.

This year over 4 million Americans turned fifty. As the population ages and the largest generation, the Baby Boomers, reaches old age the needs of the health care system change too. Now, more than ever, discharge planning has become a complicated process of coordinating care outside of the hospital. For example, a patient admitted to the hospital with a Myocardial Infarction (MI or heart attack) will require specific care upon discharge. This includes a home health nurse to visit the patient if they cannot go to a clinic or doctor's office for blood work, home oxygen if needed, cardiac rehab, and rips to the pharmacy for medications. The process works like this, a day or two before the discharge, a case manager or social worker will begin assessing the patients needs outside of the hospital.

Sometimes this involves a transfer to a nursing home or home health needs. The case manager or social working will discuss with the doctors and nurses and review the chart and begin working on coordinating your care at home. If you do not require any extra care outside of the hospital then their job is simple. They also make sure that your insurance, if you have it, will cover any costs incurred from home care. If you shop online for medical insurance quotes the type of policy you choose will affect what services are covered when you are discharged. If you do require care outside of the hospital the case manager or social worker will arrange all of the details. On the day of discharge your nurse will review the discharge instructions with you. These instructions include when you should follow up with your doctors, your medications and medication schedule, any diet or activity restriction and any other specific instructions you need to follow upon discharge. This is a very important part of your hospital stay. Your ability to follow the instructions given to you by your physicians and nurses could prevent you from being readmitted due to a failure to follow your medication schedule or not following up on visits. Those who are experts in the industry are suggesting that you obtain a minimum of three free online quotes.