- State your doubts in a simple letter to the hospital's director or the health plan's medical director. (Rules vary from state to state.)
- Meet with the hospital's discharge planner.
- Ask if the hospital is following the usual policy for the condition.
- Explain any special reasons that make you think it is unwise to discharge the person.
- Ask if the hospital rules can be changed to cover this special case.
- Remember that anyone has the right to appeal a discharge.
- Get your doctor's help in the appeal, but understand that he or she may have different reasons for wanting to discharge the person.
NOTE: According to federal law, a hospital must release patients in a safe manner or else must keep them in the hospital. Letting a patient leave the hospital is not wise if the person has constant fever, infection or pain that cannot be controlled, confusion, disorientation (no sense of time or place), or is unable to take food and liquids by mouth. However, in some cases, it may be better for the person to be released because the noise and risk of catching other diseases may make it more difficult to recover. If you plan to appeal a discharge, understand the rules of Medicare, Medicaid, the HMO, or insurance plan.
Do not hesitate to call the hospital staff member (ombudsman) who is responsible for patients' rights.
I also had major vaginal surgery recently at a hospital with outstanding ratings. I have good health insurance that would cover me for up to 4 days of hospitalization, but my doctor told me that I was to be discharged the next morning. By the next morning I had very little sleep, vomited what I ate and was unsteady standing & walking. I also had great anxiety because I was unable to urinate, defecate or hold any food down. I clearly communicated to the doctor, discharge nurse, & social worker these conditions, pains, fears, & anxiety - I was not well enough to leave the hospital. It took all my strength to stick up for myself. My input was dismissed, trivialized & berated. Hospital staff went into a most unpleasant “bully” mode. This produced great stress to me. I went home in a taxi. The driver was most unpleasant & drove as fast as he could when I asked him to watch out for the potholes because of my surgery. It was one of the most terrifying & painful rides I ever had. When I got home there was vaginal bleeding from the ride but I didn’t go back to the hospital. I had a of complete lack of confidence in that hospital to care for my health. I wonder if the doctors & hospital are given a financial incentive to reduce the number of days a patient is hospitalized.
Ha!! Not only did the Discharge Planner(Regis. Social Worker) actually lie to me to get my mother out of the hospital before I could get her into their rehab center. The nursing home/rehab center that I finally found are unwilling to keep her for the full 100 days because she is doing so "well". My experience with the system is that as soon as come improvement is made, you are kicked out with a bunch of papers & promises to "keep on your own at home". No matter that "home" is not full of the 24-7, often one-on-one, support that got you there.
I recently had major vaginal surgery and my stay was for 36hrs. when my time came to leave I told the nurse that I didn't feel well and I thought I should stay, her reply was,"Your Dr. has already released you." I went home with a UTI and ended up back at the hospital 3 days later. Believe me I talked with the head honchos about my early release and my request to stay longer on my first visit. The sad part of this is upon entering the hospital I was given a MediCare paper stateing I could request a longer stay. Ha, what good did that do?
I have felt for some time now that hospitals were discharging patients a lot sooner than advisable but I had not known until this article exactly what to do about it if it should happen to you.
I wish I had known this 4 years ago when the hospital discharge gal came in at 4 pm and said they were discharging my husband .He was wheelchair bound and I am 5'0" and couldnt even get him out of the chair plus the fact that we had no wheel chair at home. I ran to D's doctor who was across the street and he assured me they would not discharge him. The hospital did not tell me he was entitled to 100 days of special care in a rehab center. Neither did the dctor but my daughter-in-law did because she had gone through it with her mother. After I demanded that they send him to a rehab to get him out of his wheelchair, they got busy and found one near our home. Hospitals have a bad habit of discharging patients at odd hours, like the middle of the night. Two hospitalizations later he passed away. Even after he lapsed into a coma no one told me he was dying until about 2 hours before he died.