Hospital staff will work with you to plan your discharge home. Staff will let you know ahead of time so that you can arrange for someone to take you home or we can contact that person for you.
You may be asked to wait in the Transit Lounge for collection by your family or a transport service. The Transit Lounge is an area staffed by nurses where you safely wait to be taken home or to another facility. The Transport Lounge is located in the ground floor, Corridor B Area G12.
Your treating team will make arrangements for any services that you need at home such as home nursing, physiotherapy and rehabilitation, and they will advise you of these arrangements.
Before you leave the hospital, please make sure that the people who will be looking after you at home know what they need to do to assist you. If you are in any doubt, ask the nursing staff to write out your treatment program.
If you are concerned about any aspect of returning home, please discuss these concerns with the nursing staff as early as possible. He/she can arrange a referral or support service as required.
This checklist may help you plan your discharge from hospital:
- Leave the address with ward staff of the place you are going to if this is not your usual address
(in case they need to contact you after you leave) - Ensure you understand your medication, how and when to take it
- Make sure that you have all of your personal items
You may be transferred to Bundoora Centre or Broadmeadows Hospital for continuation of your care.
Discharge Letter: A letter summarising your hospital admission will be given to you on discharge and a copy will be forwarded to your GP.
After hospital care:
Post-Acute Care: Post-Acute Care is designed to help you adjust to your return home. Your needs will be discussed with you and your family before you go home and services such as home nursing will be arranged if you need them.
Allied Health: Allied Health teams help you to make a faster recovery or assist you to manage your activities of daily living once you go home. They work with medical and nursing staff in a multi-disciplinary team.
Hospital in The Home: Many patients go home early or avoid a hospital stay with support from the Hospital in the Home (HITH) program. At Northern Health, this program is called Northern at Home. Northern at Home can provide nursing and other services, in your home, seven days a week, The Doctor managing your care will discuss referral to Northern at Home with you if he/she feels that this will help you.
Outpatient’s appointments: When you leave hospital you may be given an appointment to see a doctor in the Outpatients clinics. This allows us to check your progress and provide you with any extra treatment you may need. All referrals to outpatients are reviewed by a senior medical consultant who determines when you require an appointment. Sometimes this Doctor will change the timeframe for the appointment. That is, the ward doctor will tell you that you will have an appointment in four weeks but the outpatient doctor will ask for it to be scheduled in eight or 12 weeks. This difference occurs because the outpatient doctor is often more senior, is a specialist in that particular field and takes into consideration your full history when making the decision.
