Hospital to Home Checklist Mississippi: Preparing for an Elderly Parent's Discharge

Your parent is being discharged from a Mississippi hospital. You have 24 to 72 hours to turn a home that was barely managing before into a safe recovery environment. Miss a step and you'll be back in the ER within a week — Mississippi hospitals have some of the highest 30-day readmission rates in the country for patients over 65.

This checklist covers what needs to happen before, during, and after the discharge.

72 Hours Before Discharge

Medical Preparations

• [ ] Get the discharge summary — Request a written copy of the diagnosis, procedures performed, and post-discharge care instructions. Don't leave without this document.
• [ ] Medication reconciliation — Ask the pharmacist or discharge nurse to compare pre-hospital medications against the new discharge medications. Look for duplicates, discontinued medications still in the home, and new prescriptions that interact with existing ones.
• [ ] Fill prescriptions before discharge — Mississippi hospital pharmacies can fill discharge prescriptions before your parent leaves. If they can't, identify a pharmacy near the home that has the medications in stock. Controlled substances may require a physical prescription — ask ahead.
• [ ] Schedule follow-up appointments — The primary care physician should see your parent within 7 days of discharge. If a specialist (cardiologist, orthopedic surgeon) was involved, schedule that follow-up before leaving the hospital.
• [ ] Understand wound care — If your parent has surgical incisions, a pressure injury, or IV site wounds, have the nurse demonstrate the care procedure. Watch it done once, do it yourself under supervision once, and take notes.

Home Safety Setup

• [ ] Clear pathways — Remove throw rugs, extension cords across walkways, and clutter between the bedroom and bathroom
• [ ] Install grab bars — At minimum, beside the toilet and inside the shower or bathtub. Hardware stores in Mississippi sell grab bars for $15–$40.
• [ ] Arrange the bedroom — Your parent should sleep in a bed they can get in and out of safely. If the bedroom is upstairs and your parent can't navigate stairs, set up a temporary bedroom on the main floor.
• [ ] Set up a medication station — One location with the weekly pill organizer, the medication list, and the discharge nurse's phone number

Equipment and Services

• [ ] Durable Medical Equipment (DME) — If the hospital orders a wheelchair, walker, hospital bed, or oxygen, confirm that a Mississippi Medicare-certified DME supplier will deliver it before or on the day of discharge. Equipment arriving two days late defeats the purpose.
• [ ] Home health referral — Ask the discharge planner to order a home health evaluation. Medicare covers skilled home health services (nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy) if your parent is "homebound" — meaning leaving home requires considerable effort. The home health agency should make the first visit within 48 hours of discharge.

Day of Discharge

• [ ] Verify the discharge time — Most Mississippi hospitals discharge between 10 AM and 2 PM. Plan your arrival accordingly.
• [ ] Bring loose, comfortable clothing — Your parent came in by ambulance or ER. Their admission clothes may not be practical for the trip home.
• [ ] Collect all belongings — Check the bedside table, closet, and bathroom. Dentures, hearing aids, and glasses are the most commonly left-behind items.
• [ ] Get the after-hours contact number — Ask the discharge nurse who to call if something goes wrong tonight. Is it the hospital's nurse line, the primary care physician's after-hours line, or 911?
• [ ] Understand the "red flags" — Ask the nurse: "What should send us back to the ER?" Write down the specific symptoms.

First 72 Hours at Home

This is the danger zone. Most preventable readmissions happen in the first three days.

Daily Monitoring

• Medications — Is your parent taking everything at the right time? Are they experiencing side effects (dizziness, confusion, nausea)?
• Pain levels — Uncontrolled pain prevents mobility. If pain management isn't working, call the prescribing physician before the situation deteriorates.
• Fluid and food intake — Dehydration and poor nutrition are the fastest path back to the hospital. Track fluid intake by keeping a filled water bottle at the bedside and monitoring how much is consumed.
• Mobility — Can your parent get to the bathroom safely? Are they using the walker or grab bars? A fall in the first 72 hours almost guarantees readmission.

When to Call the Doctor vs. Go to the ER

Call the doctor for fever under 101°F, mild swelling at the wound site, constipation from pain medication, or increasing confusion without other symptoms.

Go to the ER for fever over 101°F, sudden shortness of breath, chest pain, inability to keep fluids down for more than 12 hours, a fall with head impact, or wound drainage that is green, foul-smelling, or increasing.

What If Home Isn't Safe

If the hospital assessment or your own observation shows that home isn't a realistic option — your parent lives alone, the house has stairs they can't navigate, or the care needs exceed what family can provide — you have alternatives:

• Skilled nursing facility — Requires a qualifying 3-day inpatient stay for Medicare coverage
• Mississippi E&D Waiver — Provides home health aides, personal care, and adult day services for Medicaid-eligible seniors. Contact the MAC Center at 1-844-822-4622 to request an assessment.
• Private home health — Costs $20–$28 per hour in Mississippi for non-medical companion or personal care

The Mississippi Hospital-to-Home Transition Toolkit includes a printable discharge checklist, a 72-hour monitoring log, and a medication reconciliation worksheet — designed to be used at the bedside, not studied at a desk.

See more Mississippi guides →