The Hospital Discharge Playbook: a Practical Guide to Safe Transitions, Appeal Rights, and Avoiding Readmission After Stay

Your parent is being sent home from the hospital in less than 48 hours - and no one has explained what you're actually supposed to do. Most families are handed a discharge date, a stack of paperwork, and no real plan. This book gives you one: a step-by-step system for the compressed, high-stakes window between a discharge notice and your parent walking back through their own front door. Inside, you'll find: - The five specific questions to ask at the discharge-planning meeting, with space to record every answer you're given - A six-factor scoring worksheet that helps you decide between short-term rehab, in-home care, and facility placement - without guesswork - The exact process for contesting a discharge you believe is unsafe, including who to call and what to say - A room-by-room home safety assessment built around your parent's specific injury or condition, not a generic checklist - A 48-hour setup plan covering equipment, medication reconciliation, and home health coordination in the right order - Four one-page emergency decision trees for when you have two hours, not two weeks, to decide what to do next - A 30/60/90-day reassessment template so the plan keeps pace as your parent's recovery changes This book is not for readers seeking legal, medical, or financial advice about their specific case. It will not replace your parent's physician, an attorney, or a financial advisor - what it gives you instead is the exact questions and framework to bring to those professionals, so the conversation actually goes somewhere. If you're staring down a discharge date this week, or you simply want to be ready before that call comes, this is the guide to read first - and the one to keep on the shelf for the next time it happens.