[Sable99]

It has happened twice with my Mom -- here in Michigan.

About a year and a half ago, Mom (89 at the time) was told she could go home at 1 in the afternoon. After several hours, we asked the RN what the delay was. She said the hospitalist was busy and we had saw him walking down the hall many times during the day. The hospitalist apologized profusely and told us there was a miscommunication! Mom was discharged at 11:50 PM -- that's right, 10 minutes to midnight! The next day the hospital called about her hospital stay and she told them what time she was released! She never received a bill for that hospital stay and she was in ICU 4 days!

In December, Mom was released six hours after she was told she could go home. We were told the hospitalist would see all the patients on his rounds and then sign the paperwork. We found out later that he was discharging a lot of patients because it was New Year's Eve. We wondered if he wanted to discharge them before the new calendar year for insurance purposes.