If your doctor prescribes medications for you to take while in the hospital, tell your doctor you want to know the names of each medication and the reasons you are taking them.

Before you take any medicine in the hospital, look at it. If it doesn’t look like what you usually take, ask why. It might be a generic drug, or it might be the wrong drug.
Ask the same questions you would ask if you were in the pharmacy.

Do not let anyone give you medications without checking your hospital ID bracelet every time. This helps prevent you from getting someone else’s medications.
Before any test or procedure, ask if it will require any dyes or medicines. Remind your nurse and doctor if you have allergies.

If you are in a hospital, consider asking all health care workers who have direct contact with you whether they have washed their hands.
Handwashing is an important way to prevent the spread of infections in hospitals. Yet, it is not done regularly or thoroughly enough. A recent study found that when patients checked whether health care workers washed their hands, the workers washed their hands more often and used more soap.

When you are being discharged from the hospital, ask your doctor or nurse to explain the treatment plan you will use at home.
This includes learning about your medicines and finding out when you can get back to your regular activities. Research shows that at discharge time, doctors think their patients understand more than they really do about what they should or should not do when they return home. When you’re ready to go home, have the doctor or nurse write the purpose for the medication on the prescription. Many drug names look alike when written poorly; knowing the purpose helps you and the pharmacist double-check the prescription.