Hospital discharge checklist: before going home

Discharge day is when families make rushed decisions. Run this list 48 hours before the expected date — most of it can be done by phone from another city.

Before you leave the hospital

• Ask for the discharge summary in writing: diagnosis, procedures done, medicines started and stopped, warning signs, follow-up dates.
• Ask, in plain words: what can he or she do at home, what must be avoided, and what would mean coming back to hospital.
• Confirm the next appointment — date, department, and whether any report or film must be carried.
• Confirm which medicines continue at home, at what dose, and which were stopped. Photograph the list.
• Ask whether any dressing, injection, catheter, tube or oxygen is still in use, and who is trained to handle it.
• Ask who to call after hours, and where to go if something goes wrong at night.
• Get contact numbers for the ward and the treating unit written down, not remembered.

Transport home

• Ambulance or private vehicle arranged, with the patient’s position agreed (sitting, reclined) for the journey.
• Someone travelling who can speak to the driver and watch the patient, not just a driver.
• Wheelchair or walking aid arranged for the hospital exit, if walking is limited.
• Home prepared before arrival: bed made, path clear, bathroom ready, heating or cooling set.

At home in the first 24 hours

• Medicines sorted into a pill organiser or clearly labelled, with a printed schedule on the wall.
• A named family member owns the medicines list — one person, not four.
• Equipment working: bed, commode, walker, oxygen, suction, nebuliser — with a phone number for the supplier.
• Kitchen stocked with the food the discharge advice allows.
• Emergency numbers on the fridge: family, pharmacy, doctor, agency escalation, 112.
• Someone awake with the patient for the first night if the discharge summary says so.

Cover for the first fortnight

• Home-care needs estimated honestly: how many hours, and at what times. Run the matcher to get a care level and a price band.
• Attendant or nurse arranged for the days the family cannot be there — if clinical tasks continue, a qualified person is required, not a willing relative.
• Physiotherapy sessions booked if any were advised, with the first one inside the first week.
• Follow-up appointments entered into two calendars — the patient’s and the caregiver’s.
• Nutrition and hydration plan agreed with the discharging team where relevant, not improvised.

First two weeks

• Written daily notes: sleep, food, fluid, medicines taken, pain, mood, and anything new.
• Wound, surgical site or skin checked daily if there is one, and photographed only if the treating team has asked for it.
• Any new confusion, breathlessness, chest pain, fever, swelling, bleeding or inability to keep fluids down is reported the same day — call the doctor or go to hospital rather than waiting.
• A family review after 14 days: is the care level right, is the budget right, what has changed.

If nobody can be there

• One local person who can physically reach the house within 30 minutes.
• A daily call at a fixed time, from whoever is away.
• Payment trail: receipts for every transfer, one bank account, no cash-only arrangements.
• The caregiver has a written copy of the discharge summary’s instructions, within their scope — and a list of things they must not do.