Speak
up!
tion—phone numbers, office hours, e-mail addresses— tions. If I don’t ask, it’s easy to send a patient home
so you have it handy. You can also enlist the help of expecting that they are taking the medication, when
the primary nurses or clinical coordinators to tell you they’re forced to choose between buying groceries or
when your doctor is on your floor or has phoned to paying rent and buying pills,” he says. Sims also gives
say he’ll be making rounds (physicians don’t always concrete examples, so “no heavy lifting” means “don’t
do this, however). During my father’s hospital stays pick up anything heavier than a Chicago phonebook.”
we made sure a family member was at the hospital by Since the discharge process usually takes longer than
6 A.M., which was when his doctors usually made you might expect, use that time to make sure you un-
their rounds. If my dad’s doctor didn’t arrive by noon derstand every part of your plan. Some questions to
and we went to the cafeteria, my father would ask the ask yourself: Do you have all your prescriptions and if
nurses to call us when they saw his doctor on the floor. not, do you know how and when you’ll get them filled?
That way, one of us was always present to be his “hos-
pital buddy,” acting as a second pair of ears to hear
what the doctor had to say and to share that informa-
tion with other family members.
instead of giving up all the comforts of home…
…speak up and ask your doctor, hospitalist or the
hospital nutritionist if your friends and family can bring
you special treats, suggests Pam Mitchell, a 56-year-old
mother of two in Inverness, Illinois, who spent a month
in the hospital in 2006 following a car accident. “I
asked if it was okay for my friends to bring me lattes
from Starbucks and I asked if the nurses would keep
my stash of pudding in the refrigerator on the floor.
The special foods helped me when I needed to take
the huge pills and were a great pick-me-up.” Getting
the green light from your providers before you indulge
in your favorite foods and drinks helps ensure you don’t
do anything to undermine the care you’re receiving.
Even if you can’t have your favorite ice cream or a juicy Do you know how to take care of a surgical wound? How much do you
hamburger just yet, other types of familiar comforts, Can you operate any equipment, such as oxygen? If know about the drugs
like games, books, photos, magazines, DVDs and your not, ask a nurse to demonstrate how to use it while you’re taking?
iPod can make the hospital feel a little more like home. you’re waiting.
During the final two years of my father’s life, much
instead of rushing through the discharge pro- of it spent in a hospital, I learned that the most im-
cess when it’s time to go home… portant lesson any patient can learn is how to play
…listen up to everything your doctors and nurses a significant role in the quality of their care. One
tell you about what you’ll need to do when you leave memory in particular underscores for me the power
the hospital. This is an important transition and one of good communication and the quality of my dad’s
that can lead to more complications—even landing relationships with the hospital team that took care
you back in the hospital sometimes—if it’s not handled of him. On the day he was being transported home
carefully. “Discharge instructions are serious. Ask ques- to hospice a stream of hospital staff showed up at his
tions if there is something you don’t understand; the bedside. From the technician who had wheeled him
e
s
g
a medical staff should be patient and explain things. It’s almost daily to radiology to the respiratory therapists,
i
m
e
e
r
like getting driving directions: You need to know when chaplains, infectious disease specialist, and even a
k
t
c p
i
to turn and what streets to look for, so the instructions nurse’s aide who was off-duty at the time, they all
j
u
/
s
j
l
o
i
s
/
have to be like directions,” explains H. Steven Sims, came to say good-bye to my dad. His last words to
m
b
o
r
.
c
o
M.D., a surgeon and director of the Chicago Institute them were, “Thank you for caring for me.” tp
o
/
c
t
o e
l
l
for Voice Care, part of the University of Illinois Medi- mary beth sammons is a Chicago-based health writer
p
h n
k
n
cal Center. Sims thinks a good discharge plan focuses and co-author of “We Carry Each Other: Getting
c
o

p
a
i
m completely on the patient. “For example, I ask if they Through Life’s Toughest Times” (Conari, 2007), a

i
s
t

t
© © can afford medications before I write the prescrip- collection of patient hospital experiences.
the patient magazine 2010 25
PT022__0FVP0_SP10FEATspeakup.indd 25 2/2/10 8:18 AM
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