GED Language Arts Practice Test 6

“When patients leave Riverside General Hospital, they go home with a folder of instructions, a list of medicines, and, until recently, no one to ask when something seemed wrong. Nurse manager Keisha Monroe noticed that many patients who came back within a month had not gotten sicker. They had misunderstood their instructions. One man had taken a new heart pill and his old one together because both bottles were still in his cabinet. Two years ago, Monroe started a simple program. Within two days of discharge, a nurse calls each patient and asks them to read their medicine labels aloud. The nurse also asks whether they have scheduled a follow-up visit and whether they have a ride to it. The calls take about ten minutes each. In the first year, the share of patients who returned to the hospital within thirty days fell from 18 percent to 13 percent. Monroe says the calls often uncover problems no one at the hospital had thought to ask about, such as a patient who could not afford a prescription or one whose pharmacy had closed. The program does have limits. About a quarter of patients cannot be reached by phone, and those patients return to the hospital at the old rate. Monroe is now testing text messages and home visits for that group. ‘The folder is still important,’ she said. ‘But a folder can’t notice when someone sounds confused.’” Which statement best expresses the main idea of the article?

• AHospitals should replace written discharge folders with calls from nurses
• BMany patients cannot afford the prescriptions they are given at discharge
• CPatients usually return to the hospital because their illness gets worse at home
• DShort follow-up calls have helped many patients avoid a return to the hospital