Prevent a Hospital Round-Trip

Little known fact: 20–30% of all patients end up back in the hospital within a month. Often, it’s because they don’t get their prescriptions filled or get to their follow-up doctor appointments. Sometimes, patients ignore signs of health problems after a hospital stay, hoping they’ll just “go away” or they don’t want to be a “bother.”

Yet another fact: a study at Yale revealed that 3 out of 4 older discharged patients leave the hospital with the wrong prescription, or they don’t fully understand their new medication regimen. Also worrisome is the fact that they don’t understand what to do about the old prescriptions waiting for them at home. Frankly, medication management is a complicated mess for most patients!

When a loved one has been in the hospital, pitch in to help, or if you’re the patient, don’t be too proud to get help. No one wants a hospital round trip, so use these tips for a safe and sound recovery:

Use a shared calendar system (like Google’s) to organize friends and family to:

• Make sure follow-up doctor appointments are kept (critical!)

• Have prescriptions filled

• Create a system to keep track of when to take medications

• Follow up on any tests and results

• Touch base every day for at least a month after a hospital stay to watch for signs of problems.

If you sense anything is wrong, trust your gut and alert the primary doctor right away — before it turns into an emergency trip back to the hospital. No one wants that kind of travel!

This can all feel very stressful—it’s a lot of information! So don’t hesitate to reach out if you need someone by your side.