Safe Hospital Discharge and the First 72 Hours at Home

The most important thing

Before leaving, identify the final written plan and make sure every unresolved item has a named owner, contact route, and backup plan.

• Ask which medication list is final and which earlier lists should be ignored.
• Confirm what must happen tonight, tomorrow, and during the first three days.
• Write down who owns pending tests, referrals, appointments, prescriptions, equipment, and services.
• Do not assume a referral, authorization, prescription, ride, or equipment order is complete until the receiving party confirms it.

Medicines before the first night

• Separate medicines into new, changed, continued, stopped, and temporarily held.
• Verify the exact next dose from the treating team’s final instructions; do not reconstruct the schedule from memory.
• Confirm the pharmacy has the prescription, the medicine is affordable, and an after-hours problem has a contact route.
• Ask what to do when the discharge list conflicts with a bottle, portal, prior list, or verbal instruction.

Follow-up and pending results

• Record the purpose, timing, location, and responsible clinician for each appointment or laboratory test.
• Ask who will review results that are still pending and how you will be contacted.
• Confirm which clinician is responsible if symptoms, access, or instructions change before the appointment.
• If no primary care or specialist appointment exists, ask who is responsible for helping arrange it.

Make the home plan real

• Check stairs, mobility, food, electricity, bathroom access, sleep location, caregiver capacity, and transportation.
• Confirm equipment delivery, supplier phone numbers, consumable supplies, backup power, and safe storage.
• Clarify what home health, rehabilitation, skilled care, or caregiver support will actually provide—and when it starts.
• Name a backup person or service when the expected caregiver, supplier, ride, or agency cannot help.

When the plan breaks

• A missing medicine, delayed equipment delivery, unavailable appointment, conflicting instruction, or failed service is a problem to escalate—not something to silently work around.
• Use the discharge contact, prescribing team, pharmacy, supplier, insurer, or on-call service listed in the written plan.
• Keep written notices and reference numbers for coverage or authorization problems.
• Use emergency services for an emergency; this guide cannot determine the urgency of a specific symptom.

Patient and caregiver self-check

• Can I explain the three most important actions for tonight and tomorrow?
• Can I point to the final medicine list and explain what changed?
• Do I know who owns each appointment, pending result, prescription, and equipment need?
• Do I know which written contact route to use when the plan fails?