So You're Going in the Hospital. Follow These Tips.
You're going in the hospital. You've covered all the bases -- your insurance will cover, you stopped paper delivery, and you have someone to bring you home after your procedure is done. But you're scared to death once you put on the gown. How do you make sure no one screws up? U.S. News & Review, which just released its rankings of the so-called best hospitals in the country,got the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a leading patients rights organization, to give some tips : Use the Internet, though that comes with a caveat. Only use resources that come from a highly reputable, reliable source like http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus or http://www.mayoclinic.com/health-information (webmd.com is fine but don't use it for your primary source of info). Research, research, research -- look for outcome stats for the procedure you're having for your doctor and hospital, and complication rates Have a list of questions: How long ...