Patients can be discharged from a hospital because of many different reasons, such as having been determined to be medically well enough to leave, or they may also be discharged because of being transferred to another facility. Additionally, there are some instances when patients may request to sign themselves out against doctors orders. No matter what the reason a patient is being discharged, they are usually given explicit medical instructions which will help continue their medical care once they return home. Sometimes when a person is being discharged there will have to be special arrangements made, such as physical therapy appointments or possibly home health care visits.

For an elderly patient many of the standard medical issues with discharge are raised to a much higher level of concern, since the elderly person may have no one to help them after they have returned home. It is important when an elderly person is leaving the hospital that a full assessment of what the elderly person will need once having left the hospital is made, and relayed to the...Read More Here