You may require skilled healthcare when you are discharged from the hospital.
That care may be provided at a rehabilitation facility or at home with nursing services from a home care agency. Your physician and members of the healthcare team can help you determine if you will likely require any of these services. You are encouraged to be an active participant in your discharge plan. You may visit rehabilitation facilities and home care agencies prior to your admission if you anticipate requiring these services. Please tell your surgeon prior to your admission any needs you might have.
You may contact your case coordinator early in your hospital stay to discuss your discharge plan at 860.972.1475 or at extension 21475 (from any hospital phone).
Outpatient Visit
Follow-up care initially involves returning to the Hartford Hospital Transplant Program office several times per week during the first month after leaving the hospital. A series of blood tests and occasionally biopsies are conducted to closely monitor the patient’s progress. This is a period when medications are precisely adjusted to reach a point of effective stability. As time goes on, blood tests and office visits are extended. Monthly blood tests and three-month office visits are required indefinitely.
The Patient’s Responsibility
While transplantation can greatly improve the recipients’ quality of life, it also demands much of them. Recipients must become active participants in preserving their health. In addition to regular follow-up, patients must call the Hartford Hospital Transplant Program office with any concerns or questions that they have about their health. For the rest of their lives, they must take their medications especially immunosuppression (anti-rejection) medications.
Immunosuppressive Medication
Transplantation has become increasingly successful in recent years in large part through the development of new, more effective drugs that prevent the body from rejecting the donated organs. These drugs inhibit the body’s immune system from identifying the new organ as foreign. It is necessary for all patients to take immunosuppressive medication for the rest of their lives following the transplant. A successful transplant can be undermined very quickly if patients fail to take their medications appropriately and responsibly.
A program that changes lives
Hartford Hospital’s Transplant Program has saved and greatly improved the lives of hundreds of people in recent years. By replacing organs that have ceased to function effectively, the program has given new life, new energy, and new possibilities to people whose lives have been restricted by debilitating conditions.
We have worked to build a team of committed and gifted physicians, nurses, researchers, counselors, and social worker whose special expertise guarantees that our patients receive the best treatment available. We are dedicated to providing the comprehensive care from the time a patient is referred and indefinitely after the transplant.
Our health care team is committed to making your stay with us as safe. In order for this to happen we are asking you and your family to partner with us so we can provide you with the best possible care.
When it is time to leave the hospital, it is important that you understand your discharge plan to ensure your continued safety and comfort.