"Sorry, sir, it's hospital policy."
November 13, 2014 7:09 PM   Subscribe

You know how on every single television show ever when someone is in the hospital, the nurse says they have to be wheeled out in a wheelchair upon discharge, even when they are perfectly capable of walking, because it's "hospital policy"? Is this a true thing that hospitals do?

Or is it a TV land invention, like how everyone on television eats their Chinese delivery out of the containers with chopsticks but those of us in the real world put it on plates like normal humans?
posted by something something to Grab Bag (55 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Yes.
Source: It's happened to me twice.

(I don't know how widespread it is, but it's definitely a thing!)
posted by wintersweet at 7:09 PM on November 13, 2014 [1 favorite]


Yep, this is a thing -- my mom had (very minor, outpatient, only local anesthetic) surgery recently and the post-op nurses insisted they had to wheel her out to the curb and wait for me to bring the car around, even though I was parked about 15 feet away in the nearest possible spot.
posted by dorque at 7:12 PM on November 13, 2014


I walked out of the hospital the day after back surgery earlier this year and while they did offer a wheelchair, they didn't insist on it.
posted by octothorpe at 7:12 PM on November 13, 2014


Totally an actual thing, regardless of how fine you feel. It's happened to me every time I've been in the hospital, which is quite a few different hospitals in three or four states. Most ridiculously, I gave birth, and then spent over a week in hospital with my child, who was in the NICU (I was fine)--and they still insisted on wheeling me out at the end, despite that I'd spent a solid week walking around.
posted by MeghanC at 7:13 PM on November 13, 2014 [1 favorite]


Yes. Every time I've been discharged from a hospital stay (six times so far) I've been required to leave the building in a wheelchair, regardless of how well I was feeling.
posted by cooker girl at 7:13 PM on November 13, 2014


Yes, I have experienced this multiple times. More often than not.
posted by sockermom at 7:13 PM on November 13, 2014


It has happened to me at a NYC hospital and three times in Westchester NY hospitals. I was told at one hospital that if I really fought it, just like I could check myself out of the hospital without Doctor consent, I could walk out. I never tested it.
posted by 724A at 7:14 PM on November 13, 2014 [1 favorite]


When I was released from the hospital about a month ago, they gave me a choice if I wanted to be taken to the hospital exit by wheelchair or just walk there myself.
I chose the wheelchair because, hey, I just got released from the hospital and there was no way I was going to walk (tired and lazy). And also because the hospital was like a maze and there's no way I would have gotten out without a) dying or b)getting reallly lost.
posted by starlybri at 7:16 PM on November 13, 2014


Our local hospital does not do this. Husband has twice walked out under his own power after a procedure w/anesthesia, but with nurse supervision.
posted by AllieTessKipp at 7:17 PM on November 13, 2014


My experiences all happened when I was pregnant, but:

1) Overnight stay in Labor & Delivery Triage # 1 - Walked out when I was discharged.
2) Overnight stay in Labor & Delivery Triage # 2 - Walked out when I was discharged.
3) Outpatient surgery that required spinal anesthesia - Walked out when I was discharged, after I got feeling back in my legs.
4) Post-ejecting the baby - wheeled out to the front entrance by some dude, left there for someone else to deal with.

Can't be a hard-and-fast rule at Duke, at least.
posted by Coatlicue at 7:19 PM on November 13, 2014


Yep, happened to me twice in two different hospitals and I protested both times. However the most recent time when I was in for day surgery (lightweight sinus stuff) I'm pretty sure I walked out of there.
posted by jessamyn at 7:20 PM on November 13, 2014


Yep: Colorado after inpatient stay, even though I wasn't on any meds at all AND had literally been swinging on the swing set at the park next door hours before my release (I am an adult) while I was waiting for paperwork.
posted by mochapickle at 7:25 PM on November 13, 2014


It happened to me in NYC, and when I said I could walk just fine they told me it was policy. I didn't feel like arguing so I don't know if it actually is policy, and whose policy it was.
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:26 PM on November 13, 2014 [1 favorite]


Wheeled up to the maternity and labor ward when I came in at the ER with fetal distress; walked out once it was resolved.

Both times I gave birth I walked up to labor and delivery. Both times after giving birth (C-section), wheeled to the front door, then walked out to the car. I felt like this was reasonable, I was wobbly and weak and my abs were weak, and it was a long walk from the maternity ward to the front door. Walking from the car to the house was no big deal, but I truly don't think I could have walked all the way from the maternity ward to the front entrance.

When I once had to hang around in the ER and get a CT after a concussion, they wheeled me back and forth to the CT although I clearly could have walked, but I walked out when they released me.

Other times, including when I went to the ER pregnant and with pneumonia, I walked in and walked out. I do not really understand their rationales but, yeah, if they say you have to be wheeled, you have to be wheeled. It is mostly kinda tedious but my policy is not to argue with the CNA or orderly who's just following hospital policy and probably has people bicker about it with him six times a day.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:44 PM on November 13, 2014


Not to me. I can't remember what happened the one time I was in hospital in the US (I was too young) but both times I've been in hospital overnight here in Australia, I have walked out on my own. Hell, even when I went to emergency because I'd pulled a muscle in my leg and couldn't walk properly, I still wasn't wheeled out in a wheelchair. I walked out on crutches. I think they did wheel me through part of the hospital at one stage (can't remember if it was on the way in or the way out) but it embarrassed me profoundly.
posted by Athanassiel at 7:47 PM on November 13, 2014


Absolutely not. In fact, one of the very basic criteria for discharging someone from the hospital (or the emergency department, where I work) is that they can walk at their baseline and eat/drink without vomiting.
posted by gramcracker at 7:54 PM on November 13, 2014 [2 favorites]


I got angry enough over this policy when I was in the hospital once as a kid that they gave up and let me walk out.

On the other hand, when I had my wisdom teeth out (at a normal outpatient oral surgeon's office in a normal office building), I was fine walking out, but 15 minutes later proceeded to fall asleep and collapse while walking up the steps at home. Presumably this is the kind of thing hospitals like to prevent, at least on their property.
posted by zachlipton at 7:57 PM on November 13, 2014


I've been hospitalized seven times in the last 5 years at three different hospitals. Five times, I drove myself home; twice I was driven. The first time, I was having pain when walking, and they gave me a wheelchair (and then we piled the ridiculous stack of stuff -- flowers, books, gifts, etc -- I'd accumulated from over a week in the hospital on top of me on top of the chair). But nobody insisted I use the wheelchair. I imagine if I hadn't had all that junk, I'd have just walked out, schlepping my leg along with me.

The other six times, I walked out as soon as they handed me my release papers, and nobody made any effort to get me a wheelchair.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 8:15 PM on November 13, 2014


It's definitely a thing. I was in the hospital for a minor procedure late at night earlier this year and they kept me overnight, mainly because the procedure wasn't done until nearly midnight after me sitting in the ER all day. I was always able to walk on my own power (aside from the 20 minutes I was under for the procedure) but they insisted that I be wheeled out.
posted by bedhead at 8:16 PM on November 13, 2014


Last time I had surgery they let me walk out because my recovery room was right next to the exit. Other times it's been the wheelchair.
posted by bile and syntax at 8:19 PM on November 13, 2014


I've worked in more than 5 different ERs and our policy is generally that if you aren't normally in a wheelchair and you don't live at a nursing home, we want you to walk out. Because like gram cracker says, you have to prove you can walk, in most cases if you can't walk, you probably shouldn't be leaving.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 8:19 PM on November 13, 2014 [3 favorites]


Overnight stay (medication-related seizure, fucked up D&C), stuffed grumpily into a wheelchair. Day procedure (endoscopy, hysterectomy), I strolled out high as a fucking kite and went for tacos.
posted by poffin boffin at 8:21 PM on November 13, 2014 [2 favorites]


Yes. I spent 4 nights in the hospital after my c-section; the first 3 were due to the c-section, and the 4th night was because my son had to stay an extra day for jaundice. I was discharged but stayed in the room with my son. When he was released the following day, they made me take the wheelchair out with him even though I wasn't even technically a patient anymore.
posted by gatorae at 8:23 PM on November 13, 2014


At the hospital where I work, we default to wheeling people out, but if someone actively says, "I want to walk and not ride in the wheelchair" we don't stop them. However, it is a weird thing that stands out when people walk out.

It's more of a cultural practice than a policy (although for nursing staff, there are a lot of mythical "policies" that are not really policies), but whatever it is, it's pretty stupid.
posted by latkes at 8:41 PM on November 13, 2014 [3 favorites]


treehorn+bunny, I think ERs typically let people walk out but inpatient and especially L&D floors wheel people out.
posted by latkes at 8:43 PM on November 13, 2014


IIRC, I walked out after thyroid surgery (which entailed an overnight stay) at age 15. That was in Connecticut, in the early 90s, FWIW. But when I went to the ER last year (in California, where I now live) they stuck me in a chair on the way out after getting stitches in my hand due to a woodworking accident. I was not on any drugs, they just used a local to stitch me up. So my guess is: it's not *universal* hospital policy by any means, but it can vary based on location/circumstances/etc.
posted by aecorwin at 9:15 PM on November 13, 2014


My husband walked out of hospital after 4 different inpatient stays of 5+ days each.

I was wheeled out only because I was going to be using the wheelchair at home (a temporary mobility aid). If the doctors allow you to walk, you can walk.
posted by crazycanuck at 9:31 PM on November 13, 2014


Most of the time they assume, I've seen them insist and cite regulation/insurance, and I've had them state it's not necessary for them to wheel you. I think there has always been staff accompanying to either the entryway or the car, depending on the specific hospital, if they didn't wheel me or whoever it was I was with.

I suspect it depends on the exact nature of the visit and your condition, and possibly may vary by hospital or state, but I don't know. When I worked at a hospital, it was in admitting, and I didn't have anything to do with patients leaving. It's never occurred to me to ask.
posted by stormyteal at 9:48 PM on November 13, 2014


I have been told that if you are leaving the hospital with your newborn infant you ride in the chair holding said infant. The reasoning I was given by someone in the know is that it cues the hospital staff to the fact you are leaving with your child. Someone walking out with a newborn would raise flags that a kidnapping was occurring.

This may have just been a training tip for staff and not written policy but it makes sense.
posted by MultiFaceted at 10:35 PM on November 13, 2014 [1 favorite]


Yes--this actually just happened to me today. Both times I have been wheeled out in a wheelchair, it has happened after being under general anesthesia. I have never protested, since I did need the wheelchair.
posted by studioaudience at 10:47 PM on November 13, 2014


When my son had tubes put in his ears at 16 months he had to be wheeled out... Which meant I had to be wheeled out since I was holding him. I had the baby carrier buckled ready to wear him out, but the nurse stopped me. It felt so silly, but not something worth pushing.
posted by Swisstine at 11:32 PM on November 13, 2014


I had two day surgeries two weeks apart, both under general anaesthetic. The first time I'd never had surgery or general anaesthetic before, so I didn't know what to expect. When they finally let me go home, the nurses strongly encouraged me to be wheeled out in a wheelchair. I was still high as a kite so I insisted I felt fine and after some back and forth was allowed to shuffle out under my own steam (and the watchful eye of mr. hgg). Woooooooowwwwww, was I high. And slow. I felt pretty awesome though, right until the next day when all the anaesthetic wore off and I felt like a truck had run over me.

Two weeks later, right before I went in for the second surgery, I told him, "That was dumb when I insisted on walking out to the car. Even if I tell you I don't want the wheelchair, just put me in the damn thing." Apparently I didn't protest too much the second time even though I was just as high. But I definitely had a choice both times.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:39 PM on November 13, 2014


After the hospital I worked started to get low patient ratings due to long waits for wheelchairs (volunteers or techs usually take them down, since RNs usually can't leave the floors and family members weren't allowed to do it), the policy was changed. Post partum moms now have the choice of walking down as long as the dads can come up with an infant car seat and the mom doesn't carry anything heavier than, say, 10lbs. Usually the dad would take everything down to the car first and double park at the front entrance. The Mom would then be waiting upstairs in the room with the baby in the car seat. They would all walk out together with the dad holding the baby in the carrier.

Most of the moms chose to walk down unless they had c-sections. Even then, some of the brave ones decided not to wait. A wheelchair sometimes took over a half hour to show up.

When I had gall bladder surgery in the same hospital, I asked for a wheelchair. There was no way I was walking all the way to the car.
posted by dancinglamb at 11:40 PM on November 13, 2014


I suspect it depends on the exact nature of the visit and your condition, and possibly may vary by hospital or state, but I don't know.

Reading all these stories where people who were wheeled out were in for invasive things... Maybe it is by state? I commented above, but some more detail: I'd been in for a kidney infection, no surgery, no anesthesia, and the most invasive thing they'd done was put in an IV. I was roaming around the floor and at least one of the other patients assumed I was a nurse. Still, I got the wheelchair.

Compare this to an ER visit in NYC two years before for a UTI that was so painful I could barely walk. I remember leaving the hospital and sitting on the curb for a good 15 minutes before I had the strength to walk a block down to the pharmacy.

Great question, btw.
posted by mochapickle at 11:51 PM on November 13, 2014


Yep, but only at hospitals. I've had procedures with local anesthetic at doctors' offices and radiological centers and they let me walk out and even drive myself home. I even had surgery with general anesthesia at a surgical center, and I was allowed to walk from the recovery bed to the car picking me up.

Every time I've had a procedure at an actual hospital that involved any level of sedation, even an outpatient procedure, I was required to be brought out the the front door or curb in a wheelchair to be picked up.

Although, I've always walked myself out of ERs, even when I was given a nice dose of powerful painkiller.
posted by WasabiFlux at 1:14 AM on November 14, 2014


I was a junior volunteer/candy striper (with uniform and all. sigh.) at an east coast US hospital in the 80s. We were (some of) the people wheeling people out, and teen-me was the person who had to tell irritated people who had been technically discharged and waiting a long time to leave that they had to go in the chair - and waiting for me to arrive was the only thing keeping them there. This would have been people who had been admitted, not ER patients, not outpatient/day people. I never got a clear answer on it myself, but one of the things I was told was that it was because we had to stop at the bill-payment-arranging place on the way out, and possibly this was to ensure that this happened? Insurance was a very different thing back then.

I don't know if this is my own memory or something I saw somewhere else, but I have a vague notion that for insistent people, they could walk, but I was still obligated to accompany them. Most people did not get too sweary at the adolescent person, which was nice.
posted by you must supply a verb at 1:59 AM on November 14, 2014 [2 favorites]


I'm in CA. Off the top of my head I've had 8 outpatient procedures in the last several years, 5 of which were not even general anesthesia, and every single time I've been wheeled out. I'm given to understand this is to prevent the patient from falling on the hospitals property / in the doctors office, thereby limiting the office' risk of and liability for the patient getting injured.
posted by vignettist at 4:26 AM on November 14, 2014


I was made to leave hospital in a wheelchair in the UK 15 years ago after a stomach operation requiring general anaesthetic, and as commented above, for which the previous 5 days physio had been "get up and walk around as much as possible"! But I don't know if they still do it here.

I thought they must just do it everywhere (given my experience and the TV shows I also watch) - interesting!
posted by symphonicknot at 4:30 AM on November 14, 2014


When I volunteered at the local hospital in high school (or, as old people called it, 'being a candystriper'), wheeling people out upon discharge was my job, and it was hospital policy.
posted by Comrade_robot at 4:44 AM on November 14, 2014


Once yes, once no. Weirdly though:

1. Day surgery for a teratoma (so, laparoscopy) - walked out.
2. After giving birth (easy, uncomplicated) - they insisted on the wheelchair.

Different hospitals, both in NYC.

*shrug*
posted by gaspode at 5:25 AM on November 14, 2014


I'm in Philadelphia. The hospital did not make me take a wheelchair when I was discharged four days after my c-section (which was under general anesthesia).
posted by Pax at 6:00 AM on November 14, 2014


This is official policy for inpatients at at least one hospital.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 6:04 AM on November 14, 2014


Also in the UK and I've never seen it happen, unless it's a patient who had mobility problems anyway. I've been admitted three times this year - c-section, really bad gallstone attack, and then gallbladder removal under GA - and nobody even mentioned a wheelchair. The c-section I left 48 hours after the operation, and they asked "Are you happy to walk out to the car?" as part of their procedure to satisfy themselves I was fit enough to leave.
posted by Catseye at 6:09 AM on November 14, 2014


+1 yes, though there was no way I WANTED to walk out. Could have, slowly and painfully, but a chair with wheels? YES PLEASE

I also see a lot of discharge patients being wheeled out at various hospitals I've been around.
posted by Jacen at 7:38 AM on November 14, 2014


I walked out after a brief (few hours) admission to labor and delivery for fetal monitoring. I was wheeled out after longer (few days) stays for preterm labor, and also wheeled out after childbirth, even though in the latter case I'd have preferred to walk.

The hospital refused to transport our babies after they were born (my husband had to push them in a stroller). I was allowed to transport our children in strollers when they were discharged from the hospital after being admitted as older babies.
posted by telepanda at 8:15 AM on November 14, 2014


It depends on the hospital. I have been in the hospital once for surgery, and on that occasion I was very glad I didn't have to walk out under my own power. I have been to hospitals several times to visit or pick people up though, and while usually they insist on wheeling folks out, I can recall two distinct occasions (both with my mother) where the doctor told her she could leave the hospital only on the condition that she was able to walk out unassisted. Both times she wanted to be discharged early though, and both times they had a nurse and an aide with a wheelchair ready in case there was a problem.

It's to do with falls. Falling in hospitals is a lot of paperwork, and no one wants to deal with it, so they just put down a blanket policy that says that everyone has to leave in a wheelchair. No walking = no falling.
posted by Urban Winter at 8:18 AM on November 14, 2014


This was policy at the small community hospital in Texas where I volunteered during high school around 25 years ago - for overnight guests, at least. We were told it was for the patients' safety, but also to prevent lawsuits from anyone who might stumble on their way out. We had to wheel then straight to their cars.
posted by syzygy at 8:37 AM on November 14, 2014


I usually eat my leftover Chinese food right out of the trapezoidal containers, with chopsticks. And I don't recall any wheelchair when I left the hospital, after my arthroscopic knee surgery. But I don't watch TV; maybe there's some confirmation bias going on here.
posted by Rash at 9:54 AM on November 14, 2014


I walked out three days after a c-section this past August. We had to be escorted out of the heavily-monitored postpartum wing, but I was on foot the whole way.
posted by aabbbiee at 11:44 AM on November 14, 2014


I walked out of the hospital in Boston MA with no attendant after giving birth. This was ironic because I was barely capable of standing and walking to the nearby parking garage left me blacking out (very rough birth - don't worry I wasn't holding the baby). Honestly I was really hoping somebody would get me a wheelchair but it didn't happen.

Two years previously I was wheeled out after being sedated for an endoscopy AND a nurse waited with me. Same hospital.
posted by Cygnet at 3:22 PM on November 14, 2014


The hospital where I work doesn't require us to send people in wheelchairs when they go home. It's just that 95+% of the patients we discharge need and/or want one. I always feel really weird letting someone leave on their own two feet, because it's so rare that someone who was sick enough to be in the hospital feels strong and steady enough to walk that far on their own at discharge.
posted by vytae at 4:04 PM on November 14, 2014


Response by poster: Thanks, all! This is very interesting! Even though it's a thing that seems to be up to individual hospitals to decide, it's clearly something TV didn't make up entirely (for once). Huh!
posted by something something at 6:00 PM on November 14, 2014


Yeah, totally a hospital by hospital thing. I also suspect sometimes 'it's hospital policy' gets misused. I've been in hospital many times, and the older I get the less I'll acquess to it if I'm feeling OK. Usually a mild glare and head shake and just leaving after all the paperwork is in order works for me.

I'm sure it's on my perminate record at the NSA or something now. {\}
posted by edgeways at 9:00 PM on November 14, 2014


After visiting the ER and getting treated, I walked out on my own.
After having an operation, I was wheeled out as per hospital policy, while family member was told to bring the car around to pick me up.
posted by thegoldfish at 7:27 PM on November 15, 2014


I know someone who was an inpatient at a psychiatric unit. She was required to be wheeled out due to hospital policy.
posted by tickingclock at 1:25 PM on November 16, 2014


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