The 72-Hour Gap: Why the Days After Hospital Discharge Are America's Most Dangerous Window in Home Care
Each year, hundreds of thousands of Americans are discharged from hospitals without adequate guidance on the medical supplies they will need to continue their recovery safely at home—creating a critical 48-to-72-hour window during which complications quietly escalate and readmission risk spikes. The failures driving this gap are systemic, persistent, and largely invisible to the patients most affected by them. This investigative piece examines what goes wrong at discharge, what it costs patients