Hospital Discharge With a Wound: The First 72 Hours.

Discharge day feels like the finish line. Clinically, it's a handoff, and the first 72 hours at home are where handoffs drop. The hospital's wound plan lives on a printout, the follow-up appointment is weeks away, and the family becomes the care team overnight.

Before the discharge paperwork goes in a drawer, find three things in it: the wound care instructions, the medication list, and the follow-up appointments. Check the supplies that came home against what the instructions require, because they rarely match. Photograph the wound at the first dressing change so change has a baseline.

Spreading redness or warmth around the wound. Drainage that turns cloudy, bloody, or foul. Fever. Pain that grows instead of fades. Wound edges pulling apart. Any of these is a call today, not a note for the follow-up visit.

This gap is precisely what our post-discharge care exists for: a clinician at the bedside in the first days home, the plan verified against reality, and communication back to the discharging team. Families can call before the discharge even happens, and the smart ones do.