A nurse on the unit will help you to dress if you cannot manage on your own. You will then be asked to wait in your room until someone comes to help you down to the hospital entrance. Even if you are feeling healthy and fit, you will be asked to sit in a wheelchair for the journey. Many hospitals have a risk management expert who is employed full-time to transport patients. This is a wise precaution for many reasons. Even if your hospital stay was short and the condition or operation minor, you will certainly have spent more time in bed than usual. Because of this, your muscles will be temporarily weaker. You may find that after a walk to the elevator and a standing wait, you feel weak and dizzy. You may even faint.
You are taken in the wheelchair to the main lobby where you can collect your valuables from the cashier’s office and sort out details of payment. For weak patients, a member of the security department will deliver valuables to the room.
Discharge Against Medical Advice
Occasionally, a patient discharges himself or herself against the advice of the physicians. In such an event, the patient must sign a form confirming that the action being taken is against medical advice (known as A.M.A.) and that the hospital and medical staff concerned cannot, therefore, be responsible for anything that happens afterwards. A.M.A. is obviously a dangerous practice. The reason is often dissatisfaction about the care you are receiving. If this is the case, it is safer to ask for another physician to take over your case than to leave the hospital against advice.
