New Tool Helps Patients Manage Better After Leaving Hospital
Leaving hospital can be stressful for patients and their families. Many patients are still recovering and they and their families are often anxious about how to manage at home. This stress can make it difficult to remember instructions from hospital staff upon discharge about when to take medications, what symptoms to look out for and when to schedule follow-up appointments.
A new tool being introduced by Temiskaming Hospital will help you better manage your own care after leaving hospital. The Patient Oriented Discharge Summary (PODS) has the potential to improve care for many patients and families.
Patients and health care providers co-developed PODS to make important discharge information and instructions clear and easy to follow by patients and families after the transition home.
PODS highlights five important issues for you when leaving hospital:
- Medications they need to take
- How they might feel and what to do
- Changes to their routine
- Appointments they have to go to
- Where to go for more information
PODS uses plain language, large type, pictures and images to make the information as easy-to-understand as possible. Patients, families and their care providers complete the summary together, and the patient is asked to recall the instructions in their own words to ensure they have been understood. In addition, a traditional discharge summary is still sent to the patient’s family doctor.
Temiskaming Hospital PODS ( English , French )
In addition to Temiskaming Hospital, PODS is being adopted by 26 other hospitals across the province and could benefit approximately 50,000 patients in the first year alone. This expansion is taking place with support from ARTIC (Adopting Research to Improve Care), a joint program of the Council of Academic Hospitals of Ontario and Health Quality Ontario. ARTIC is dedicated to accelerating the spread of proven health care throughout the province.
To learn more, click here https://youtu.be/YMaY3VHZJXQ