Hospital discharge
Your parent is being discharged in 72 hours. Here is the order to do things in.
A checklist for the compressed window between 'they're ready to go home' and actually going home.
The short version
- Ask for the discharge summary in writing before you agree to a date.
- Equipment — a commode, a walker, a hospital bed — often takes longer to get than care does.
- Book private care for the first week and start the public assessment the same day.
- The first 72 hours at home carry the highest readmission risk. Over-staff them.
Day one: get it in writing
Ask the ward for the discharge summary, the medication list and the name of the person coordinating discharge. You want the list of care tasks — bathing, transfers, wound care, medication — in their words, because that determines whether you need a PSW or a nurse.
If wound care, injections or catheter management is on the list, that is a nurse and it is priced differently. Everything else is usually a personal support worker.
Day one, also: equipment
Equipment is the usual bottleneck. A raised toilet seat, a commode, a walker, a transfer belt, sometimes a hospital bed and a Hoyer lift. Hospital occupational therapists will tell you what is needed; they will not always order it.
Rental is available same-week in most of the GTA. Confirm the delivery date before you agree to the discharge date, not after.
Day two: care, both kinds at once
Book private care for the first seven to ten days and start the Ontario Health atHome assessment the same day. The public hours usually arrive 5–10 days after the referral; the private hours cover the gap and then taper.
Ask providers directly whether they have confirmed availability on your date. 'We should be able to' is not a yes, and the first morning home is not the time to discover that.
Day three: the house
Clear the path from the bed to the bathroom. Take up the loose rugs. Put a light on the route and a phone within reach of the bed. Move what they use daily to waist height so nothing requires a stool or a stretch.
Fill the prescriptions before they come home, not on the way. Pharmacies do not always have everything in stock.
Want the numbers for your own situation?
The cost calculator uses the published rate cards on this site, not national averages.