Are You Hospital Ready?

Can’t do these yourself? Ask a family member, a friend or your pharmacist to help.

• Write down every medicine you take, with the dose and time.Include vitamins, supplements, inhalers, eye drops and creams. Date it, and update it every time something changes. Keep a copy on your phone and in your wallet.
• List your allergies, and what happens when you’re exposed.
• Write down what’s normal for you: memory, walking, hearing, eating, sleep.Date it. Staff don’t know your normal. Your family does.
• Choose the person (or people) to speak for you, and put it in writing.A health care power of attorney.
• No up-to-date medication list?
  Take all your medicine bottles with you, especially in an emergency.Doctors need to see everything you take, so nothing new clashes with it.
• Pack: glasses, hearing aids, dentures, cane or walker, phone charger, non-slip shoes, and a notebook and pen.

• Keep one notebook at the bedside.Each day, write down who came (names and roles), what changed, and your questions.
• Ask every day:
  “What’s the plan for today? Why am I still here, and what are we waiting for?”
• In the first day or two, ask:
  “What needs to happen before I can go home?”Planning for going home starts when you arrive.
• In the US, on day one, ask:
  “Am I admitted as an inpatient, or under observation?”
• Before signing a consent form, check it’s the right procedure, and the right side.
• For any new medicine, ask:
  “What is this for? Does it replace something I take at home?”

• Offered a sleeping pill?
  Ask: “Is there another way to help me sleep?”In older patients, sleeping pills can sometimes lead to confusion, dizziness and falls.
• Have a urinary catheter?
  Ask every day: “When can it come out?”Without one, it’s easier to get up and move.
• Fasting for a test?
  Ask when it’s scheduled. If it’s moved or canceled, ask: “Can I eat now?”
• Keep moving as much as you safely can. It protects your strength.Press the call bell for any help you need, even just to have someone stand by while you walk.
• Ask staff not to take your meal tray away while you’re asleep, and ask if family can bring food from home.
• If things aren’t improving, ask for a meeting with the care team sooner rather than later.
• Tell the nurse right away about new confusion, harder breathing, a fall, not eating or drinking, or “I just don’t feel like myself.”

• Get medicine changes in writing: what’s new, what stopped, and why.
• Ask: “Who do I call if something goes wrong? When is my follow-up?”
• Arrange help and equipment at home, and someone to stay the first few days.
• Don’t feel ready or safe to go home?
  Say so clearly. Ask: “Who can I talk to about this before I leave?”