TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

Hospitals Can Offer AHRQ's Free "Taking Care of Myself" Brochure to Patients Being Discharged  

In support of Patient Safety Awareness Week (March 4-10), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) offers a bilingual guide that can help hospitals reduce their readmission rates by better preparing patients for self-care and follow-up appointments before they leave the hospital. The guide--Taking Care of Myself: A Guide for When I Leave the Hospital/Cómo cuidarme: Guía para cuando salga del hospital--is available as a printed document or fillable PDF that clinicians can complete in the hospital and share with patients before they leave. The guide is adapted from Project RED (Re-Engineered Discharge), which was funded by AHRQ and developed by Brian Jack, M.D., and colleagues at Boston University Medical Center. For a copy of the guide in English, go to: http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/goinghomeguide.htm  or in Spanish, visit: http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/goinghomesp.htm  

To order print copies, email your request to AHRQPubs@ahrq.hhs.gov or call 800-358-9295.

For the brochure in English, please reference AHRQ No. 10-0059 with your request, or for the brochure in Spanish, please reference AHRQ Pub. No. 10-0059-C.