Important Details To Consider When Being Discharged.
Discharging a patient from a hospital or skilled nursing facility requires extensive planning to assure that all required services will be available at their destination. This process is more complicated when the person is either bed or wheelchair-bound. In these instances, a non-emergency medical transportation plan must be included within the discharge procedure.
Medical Transportation and Discharge:
Discharge planning is impacted by where the patient is discharged to. Depending on their needs, the home may be a house, apartment, assisted living unit, or nursing home. Coordination must occur between the hospital, the medical transportation provider, and destination personnel, if any, to assure that:
- The treating physician has approved the discharge and documented this decision.
- All discharge paperwork has been completed.
- Follow-up visits and outpatient services are scheduled.
- The patient and family have received their discharge packet and all medications, durable medical equipment, and patient’s personal belongings.
- Non-emergency medical transportation arrives when scheduled to transport the patient to their destination.
- In situations where the patient’s destination is an assisted living or nursing home, the staff is prepared to accept the patient at the scheduled time, and support his or her reintegration into the facility.
Delays in any step in this process can lead to patient and family frustrations. For patients discharged to an assisted living or nursing home environment, severe delays in a hospital discharge can result in missed medication and meals, which can exacerbate existing medical conditions. For these reasons, it is imperative that the discharge process occurs as planned.
Non-Emergency Transportation, Follow-up Appointments, and Outpatient Care:
The scheduling of follow-up physician appointments and outpatient services, such as physical therapy, are often including in the discharge planning process. For people who are wheelchair-bound, they will require a wheelchair transportation service to get them to their appointments. This service must be reliable to assure that the patient does not miss needed medical treatment due to driver delays.
SILVER SERVICE MICHIGAN TRANSPORTATION provides all levels of non-emergency medical transportation and wheelchair transportation to support the hospital and facility discharges, physician appointments, and outpatient medical services. We provide reliable, non-emergency transportation in the Ann Arbor, Metro Detroit, and Ypsilanti service areas. SILVER SERVICE MICHIGAN TRANSPORTATION also provides extended transportation serves throughout Michigan and neighboring states upon request.