If you have been at the hospital a while, you have probably accumulated a lot of stuff there. Pack what you don’t need and take it home.
Do a load of laundry and put what you can away so you can have all that done before you come home for good.
Measure Access Routes
Imagine walking in with the patient in tow when you enter your house. How is he coming in the door? Is he able to walk slowly on his own? How much assistance does he need, if any? Are there stairs? Can he climb stairs, and if so, how many? If he cannot make the trip alone, is the entryway flat enough to bring a wheelchair through the door? Is the door wide enough for a wheelchair to come through (measure the wheelchair outside wheel to the outside wheel, not arm width to arm width. Wheels are always the most comprehensive measurement on wheelchairs.)
Once you determine if you can make it through one of the doors into the house, decide whether you can make it through all the rest of the doors leading to the bedroom. Use the exact wheel-to-wheel measurement for all pathways. Remember you want a little extra wiggle room (clearance), if possible, for his elbows to hand over or your fingers if you’re pushing him through.
Clear Away Obstacles
Remove any furniture in the way. If rugs are loose, remove them or carefully secure them. Remember that wheelchairs spin, and people who use canes, walkers, or crutches trip and fall on loose rugs.
Make a pathway to where your family member will want to go first. Coming home is usually exhausting; therefore, expect the bed or a favorite recliner to be a top choice. However, showers often rank up there as a number one request.
Gather Excess Supplies
One way to get the extra pillows and wedges you may need is to take them home from the hospital. When you pack to go home, include all the disposable pillows and wedges given to your family member as a patient. They belong to him. Anything brought to a patient’s room, even if unopened, must be thrown away after discharge. Hospitals consider anything brought to a patient’s room as potentially contaminated. Therefore, grab a large trash or linen bag and put everything in there. Each item went on your bill when it came into your room. One or two exceptions: leave the linens and equipment; they get washed and reused. Pillows, however (unless they are washable plastic), chemical wipes, anything labeled with your name, wedges, patient mobility sliders, tubing, bandages, chux, tissues, medicine cups, tape, etc., are disposable and can go home with you.
Start packing the day before discharge. Take some supplies home to unpack that day and take the necessary measurements to prepare the room. If he has a wound that needs dressing, a catheter, or anything that might drain or leak on the bed, put a chux on the bed to cover your mattress. If there is a risk that your mattress could get soiled, take an old shower curtain and put it between the mattress cover and mattress to protect the bed from spills or leaks. You can clean sheets and other linens in bleach, but the mattress is different. Putting chux over the fitted sheet also helps prevent stains from getting on the sheets. Cover the extra pillows and wedges with pillowcases in case they get soiled. Then, you can replace the case and reuse the pillow.
Cleaning Reusable Supplies
Insurance doesn’t pay for chux because it’s not considered essential for care. To save money, you can buy washable, reusable chux at Amazon and medical supply stores. Wash them with bleach to kill bacteria from body waste. The bleach formula is a 1:10 solution to kill any harmful germs with bleach. Make sure you don’t have any good clothes in the wash with the bleach, though.
If you need more pillows or wedges, Amazon has a great selection of both at decent prices. Look up wedges. They have all types. Another good purchase for someone who is in bed a lot is a knee support pillow. Place it under their ankles to keep their heels from rubbing against the bed and rubbing the skin off.
Prevent Skin Shearing
Another way to keep their skin from getting sheared off is to get some sheepskin pads or take a pair of thick socks, cut the toes off, and pull them over the elbows or heels.
Medication Planning
Once you get home, create a 7-day scheduled medication system that will help you determine when medications are due and how much to give. If your family member takes a lot of medications, try to group them for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime, so you’re not constantly running to the bedside to do meds. Talk to the nurse before you leave to find out if there are any special rules for the medications. Instructions warn to take some medicines with food while avoiding food or antacids with others. Eventually, you will need to know about all the meds you give, but initially, find out if any have prominent warnings you need to know.
Items you might want to Buy for Bath Time and Toileting
Depending on the level of care assistance needed, consider buying a shower chair and toilet handrails that fit over each side of the toilet seat and can be used to push up when it’s time to stand up. Both are available at larger drug stores or retail stores like Target or Walmart.
