While caregivers face a range of challenges every day, few can generate as much concern and uncertainty as trying to successfully manage a transition in care from the hospital to home setting.
That’s why the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Ask Medicare initiative has developed two new videos to help caregivers and their loved ones successfully navigate the process. The videos present tips that are practical and easy to follow – and they highlight resources that are available for additional support.
The first video Tips for Making a Hospital to Home Transition provides insights and expert guidance on important issues caregivers need to plan for, and manage, when bringing a loved one back home from the hospital. It offers advice on maintaining effective dialogues with health care providers, preparing the home for new equipment needs, planning for additional expenses, and more.
The second video highlights a detailed checklist, the Planning for your Discharge Guide, which CMS has developed to help caregivers – and their loved ones – walk through a range of questions that need to be answered to ensure a successful and stress-free future of in-home care.
Please visit the Ask Medicare web site at www.medicare.gov/caregivers to view these and other helpful resources, including our free e-newsletter, real caregiver stories, targeted tips and tools. And please share them with others who may benefit from the information.
Because the more we all know about the challenges and joys of caregiving, the more we can support those who do so much for others.
Thank you,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Feb 21, 2010
Discharge Missteps Can Send Seniors Back To Hospital
Mr. Park, 85, recently was admitted to the hospital with community-acquired pneumonia and, after five days of intravenous antibiotic therapy, he was discharged home.
Mr. Park lives with his daughter. He has hypertension, benign prostate hyperplasia and mild Alzheimer's disease. His medications at home included bisoprolol/HCTZ, 5/6.25 mg; tamsulosin, 0.4 mg; and donepezil, 10 mg once a day. While he was in the hospital, the bisoprolol was switched to 50 mg of metoprolol twice a day because bisoprolol was not on the formulary. At the time of his discharge, an intern reviewed his hospital medication list and wrote out the prescriptions, which were given to Mr. Park by a nurse. Mr. Park's daughter filled the new prescriptions. When he returned home, Mr. Park resumed taking his usual medications, plus the new ones prescribed in the hospital. The combination of bisoprolol and metoprolol made Mr. Park bradycardic and dizzy. He fell on his way to the bathroom. When the emergency medical technicians arrived at his home, his heart rate was just 38 beats per minute. Mr. Park was readmitted to the hospital.
Patients often are discharged from the hospital to their homes unprepared to care adequately for themselves. Because of postdischarge missteps, many involving a medication mistake, patients too often may find themselves back in the hospital. Given the medications Mr. Park was mistakenly taking after he returned home, his dizziness and bradycardia could have been predicted and his readmission avoided.
This article provided by American Medical News. To read the entire article, please click here: AMA
Mr. Park lives with his daughter. He has hypertension, benign prostate hyperplasia and mild Alzheimer's disease. His medications at home included bisoprolol/HCTZ, 5/6.25 mg; tamsulosin, 0.4 mg; and donepezil, 10 mg once a day. While he was in the hospital, the bisoprolol was switched to 50 mg of metoprolol twice a day because bisoprolol was not on the formulary. At the time of his discharge, an intern reviewed his hospital medication list and wrote out the prescriptions, which were given to Mr. Park by a nurse. Mr. Park's daughter filled the new prescriptions. When he returned home, Mr. Park resumed taking his usual medications, plus the new ones prescribed in the hospital. The combination of bisoprolol and metoprolol made Mr. Park bradycardic and dizzy. He fell on his way to the bathroom. When the emergency medical technicians arrived at his home, his heart rate was just 38 beats per minute. Mr. Park was readmitted to the hospital.
Patients often are discharged from the hospital to their homes unprepared to care adequately for themselves. Because of postdischarge missteps, many involving a medication mistake, patients too often may find themselves back in the hospital. Given the medications Mr. Park was mistakenly taking after he returned home, his dizziness and bradycardia could have been predicted and his readmission avoided.
This article provided by American Medical News. To read the entire article, please click here: AMA
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