How You Can Exit the Hospital Successfully

Aug. 8, 2011 - PRLog -- The Society of Certified Senior Advisors has released a new article that discusses one of the most critical periods in a patient’s recovery; the transition from hospital to home. About 25% of hospitalized patients experience an adverse event when they transfer from hospital to home. Seniors are at a higher risk for hospital readmissions because they typically have more health issues to consider for their discharge, making their treatment plan a bit more complicated.  

Excerpts from article:
The physician who is responsible for discharging a patient writes a discharge summary. It specifies the course of treatment while in the hospital; the patient’s status at the time of discharge; and the recommendations and expectations for treatment after the patient is released, such as follow-up visits with the doctor, medications, allowed activities, rest recommendations, and diet requirements. The likelihood that a patient will experience complications after discharge and will be readmitted to the hospital increases if:

•  The discharge care providers (doctors, nurses, discharge planners) do not clearly communicate the instructions on the discharge summary.
•  The patient does not understand the instructions. This can occur because of language barriers, use of uncommon medical terms, or if the patient receives too much information to follow.
•  Results from tests taken while in the hospital are not available at the time of discharge, and therefore, are not included on the discharge summary. Furthermore, these test results    may not be forwarded to the physician who performs the follow up visit.

This press release contains only small excerpts from its original source. To read the full length of, How You Can Exit the Hospital Successfully, visit our Healthcare Library at  http://www.csa.us/HealthcareLibrary.

The Society of Certified Senior Advisors (SCSA), provides free resources and tools for our members as an ongoing commitment that we have in helping professionals to understand the complex and dynamic lives of modern senior citizens.

About SCSA
SCSA’s mission is to educate professionals to work more effectively with their senior clients. For those who work with seniors, this means understanding the key health, social and financial factors that are important to seniors—and how these factors work together.
For more information about SCSA and its educational course, please visit www.csa.us.

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Erica Ananich, SCSA
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society@csa.us
www.csa.us/blog

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SCSA educates professionals to work more effectively with their senior clients. That means understanding the key health, social & financial factors that are important to seniors — so you can find success in the senior market.