Will a Checklist Reduce your Risk of Being Readmitted to the Hospital?

Do you go to your doctor’s appointment with a checklist? Creating a checklist is an easy way to go prepared and ensure you go home with what you need to know.

A small study was conducted on patients admitted to the hospital for heart problems. Half the patients went through a 27 steps checklist prior to discharge, while the other half received standard discharge instructions.

So in this study, this was a checklist DOCTORS used to ensure they covered everything prior to discharging a patient. The checklist served as a reminder to doctors and prompts them to be sure and cover things like medication recommendations, diet instructions, warning signs to watch for, referrals to other health professionals if applicable, and so on.

The study found those who were discharged using the checklist were more likely to take their medications as prescribed. For patients discharged with doctors utilizing the 27 step checklist, only 2% were readmitted to the hospital within one month. For the other patients that were discharged without the checklist, 20% found themselves readmitted to the hospital within a month.
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