You and your child finally get through the hurdles and evaluation and your child feels better and ready for discharge. It is not uncommon for both you and your child to excitedly and hurriedly request for discharge paper and be on your way.

Before you get discharged, here are some questions you may want to ask to be sure you understand your child’s symptoms, and your ER visit. After all this unplanned visit has cost your family both time and money.

1. What was my child treated for?

All symptoms and illness have a diagnosis. Some may be simple and others may be complex. You always want to know what your child was treated for. Be sure to understand it in lay terms and if you don’t, ask for clarification from your providers.

2. What care did my child receive?

As an emergency medicine pediatrician, when I ask parents who come for a repeat visit what care their child received during their last visit, they rarely know.  These are useful information to the providers. It may help know how best to treat your child and also can avoid repeating multiple interventions or medication that didn’t work during a previous visit.

The expectation is not to know the names of the medications or the intricate details, but a little bit of information on your child’s care is essential

Ask for the meaning of blood testing and imaging (if any) done and if your child received any medications, be sure to ask what it was treating. Examples: A chest Xray to check for pneumonia (an infection in the lungs); or your child received some medication to help with the pain.

3. What do I do at home?

When your child is getting discharged home, it is likely because he or she is well enough to need no other treatment or is stable enough to continue treatment at home. Be clear on what the treatment plan is at home.

If your child is prescribed medications for home use, be sure to ask how to give it- dose, frequency, duration; if your child needs supportive care for things like sprain, be sure to get details on how to do it and how often; for wounds, know how often to clean and change the wound dressing.

You wouldn’t want to go home unarmed and unsure of what to do next.

4. When do I follow up?

In most cases, your child is discharged to follow up with your pediatrician or another specialty. Do not assume your child has already been seen and treated and doesn’t need anything else. Clearly ask expectations on when to follow up. If you are being referred to a specialist ask for contact details to make that appointment. Hospitals function differently while some may call you to set up an appointment, others may expect you to make the call yourself.

5. When do I return to the Emergency room?

This is an important question because symptoms can change over time or progress and become worse. In some cases, mild symptoms that commonly occur with an illness may manifest within a few hours or a day and may not necessarily mean another immediate re-visit to the ER. For instance, in the case of a stomach virus, your child may have vomiting initially and diarrhea may develop within a few hours.

Ask your providers what you should watch out for and over what period of time. Different illnesses have different courses and the length of your days your child may be sick will also differ. Clarify what the ‘red flag’ symptoms are; these are symptoms for which your child must return to the emergency room for a recheck.

Visits can get overwhelming but having these questions at the back of your mind can make your visit worthwhile and your mind at rest. You can write these questions down and have the answers also written down for reference, especially in the care of a repeat visit

Providers may try their best to educate you on all these but remember, you are the best advocate for your child and it is in your best interest to ask so you and your family can avoid multiple unnecessary visits to the Emergency room within a short time.

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