HOSPITAL DISCHARGE NOTICES SHOULD WE READ THEM?

Hi Angus

Should we read our discharge summary - to be given the choice as to whether or not we want to would be good.

I was always so curious about exactly WHAT was being written about me, how it was written, and what it meant for me.  I wanted to know about stuff that was about me.  I wan't just a number taking up a hospital bed. And back in 1993 from my young recollections - the media take on people in hospital was that we were burdens on the system.

I worked very hard at feeling like a human all throughout my hospital experience.

Sue

When I was an Occupational Therapist for Q health, I always gave patients a copy of the reports I wrote about them, and put c.c. on the bottom, so that they and the doctors all knew who had a copy. I encouraged people to take their letters to follow-up outpatient appointments, write notes on it and ask "what about this?" Knowledge is power. 

"Education"   was a mandatory heading that we had to write in our notes, to make sure we actually talked to people about the treatment we gave. Most benefits of therapy come from the person themself, being able to understand what is going on, and setting and achieving their own goals .

As a patient, I always ask a doctor, "can I have a copy of that?" and they usually give me one.

My husbands (Type1 Diabetic, Prostate Cancer survivor) GP always emails him all his test results,

and we write down everything we want to ask. I even made up a check sheet for my elderly parents to take to their doctors, and the doctors would fill it in, or give me time to take notes, if I went along.