A hospital cannot discharge someone to the street. If that is being proposed to you, the phrase to use is unsafe discharge, and you should ask for it in writing.
That sentence is the whole article, but the rest of this explains how to make it stick.
What "ready for discharge" actually means
It means the hospital has decided there is no longer a medical reason for the person to occupy that bed. It does not mean they have somewhere to go, that somewhere is safe, or that anyone has checked.
Those are different questions, and the hospital is measured on the first one.
Ask for the discharge planner by name
Every hospital has discharge planners or case managers whose job is arranging somewhere safe. They are often not the person you have been speaking to.
Ask at the nurses' station: who is the discharge planner for this patient? Then ask them directly, and write down the name.
Say the words
If home is not safe, say so plainly and specifically:
- Nobody is there overnight
- There are stairs and they cannot manage stairs
- The person who was caring for them cannot any more
- There is no working heating
Vague worry is easy to reassure away. A specific hazard has to be answered.
You can appeal
You have the right to appeal a discharge you believe is unsafe. The hospital must tell you how, and in most cases the appeal pauses the discharge while it is reviewed.
For a Medicare patient this is a fast-track appeal to the Quality Improvement Organization, and the hospital must give you a notice explaining it. Ask for that notice. Asking for it in writing changes the conversation on its own.
What to have ready
If a placement is being looked for, the things that hold it up are almost always the same:
- The current level-of-care assessment
- A medication list, including PRNs
- Guardianship or power-of-attorney paperwork, if there is any
- Which funding applies — Medicaid waiver, SSI, a VA programme, or unresolved
You do not need all of it to start. An incomplete referral is still a referral, and any provider worth using will work the gap with you rather than sending it back. We say exactly that to referrers.
If you are being told there is nothing
There often is, under a name you did not search for. The same six-bed home is a board and care home in California, an adult family home in Washington, a personal care home in Georgia. The full list of state terms is here — families regularly conclude nothing exists near them because they searched the wrong word.
Who to call today
If you need help now, these are the numbers, by state. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911. If you are in crisis, call or text 988 — veterans press 1.
And before you agree to any placement, take this checklist with you. The questions on it are the ones providers hope you will not ask.