Getting discharged from a brief hospital stay into the community setting can be a recipe for disaster. In the hospital, the patient is cared for around the clock. Upon discharge, the patient is sent home with a stack of prescriptions and instructions for followup with a physician in a month or a nurse to visit in a few days. This seems like a workable plan, until the patient has to manage their care and medications.

The patient is usually just well enough to be cared for at home by themselves or a caregiver. At the point of care, where the medications are transferred to the patient or caregiver, use instructions are rarely sought out for new medications. It’s just as well, this would be information overload. After all, discharge instructions for overall health in addition to medication names, function, dosing frequency, meal-timing, and side-effects all need to be understood and managed for the patient’s sustained improvement. 

Here is the where the problem starts. Prescribing errors appear, doses get missed, side-effects develop, or worse – some of the prescriptions did not get filled either through omission or for financial reasons and the drop in quality healthcare is inevitable. At this point, patients or caregivers need to have a resource available to guide them through this treacherous time. 

There is a Drug Safety study (Nov, 2010, Volume 33-Issue 11, page 1027-1044) that backs up this fact. In this study, pharmacists were used to ensure that the discharged patient would receive improved drug usage based on discharge orders. Although this study was done in England, these errors are also happening here in the US.

The “take home” message is to have a trusted pharmacist to rely on for medication guidance to ensure that you or your loved one is protected from drug misadventures upon discharge. This priceless, knowledgeable resource will help keep you out of the hospital and minimize unnecessary costs associated with your recovery. 

Until next week, Stay well.  

Dion