Preparing for your discharge begins on admission. On the day of your discharge, your doctor will write the order and tell you when you will be able to leave the hospital. Please make plans for someone to take you home. If possible, please send most of your belongings home prior to the day of discharge.

In maternity, the mother with her new baby will be transported to the car in a wheelchair. The baby should be placed in his or her car seat while in the hospital to ensure a proper fit. The base of the baby’s car seat should remain in the car, secured in the back seat of the car in the rear-facing position. By taking these steps, you will only need to place the baby and car seat in the already secured base.

In the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), the baby is not discharged by wheelchair. Rather, a member of the NICU staff carries the baby out of the hospital, whether or not the mother has been previously discharged.

In other areas, if you, your doctor or your nurse feels you need a wheelchair, Transport Services will be called by the nurses’ station and a wheelchair will be brought to you. Otherwise, you may walk to the car after receiving your discharge information from the nurse. In all cases, the person taking you home should bring the car to the area marked “Patient Discharge” where you may be picked up.

We want you to feel ready.

• Ask any questions about what you can expect (or cannot expect) when you go home.
• Review your specific instructions about medications, wound care, physical limitations, dietary restrictions, and/or safety precautions.
• Know what symptoms are “normal,” which ones might or should cause you concern and when to call your healthcare provider.
• Be sure you are familiar with and comfortable about the working of any equipment you will need to use.
• Make sure you can read the handwriting on prescriptions given to you by your doctor before you leave.
• Know which of your previous medications you should or should not continue to take with any newly prescribed medications.