Researchers from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center conducted focus groups and interviews to follow-up with 61 family caregivers after acutely ill children transitioned from hospital to home care. After the children had made the transition, surveyed families and caregivers told the researchers that in-home follow up visits, telephone calls from nurses and enhanced care plans, among other measures, would be very helpful in improving the process.
“Our study finds that transitions from hospital to home affect the lives of families in ways that may impact patient outcomes at discharge,” Andrew Beck, MD, study co-author and a physician in the divisions of General and Community Pediatrics and Hospital Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s, said in a statement. “Many family caregivers expressed mental exhaustion, being in a fog, the emotional toll of having an ill child and uncertainty on how to care for their child after hospitalization.”
The study authors note while the importance of a smooth hospital-to-home transition is understood by leading pediatric researchers and medical societies, current models of care delivery don’t enable a cohesive transitional experience. This fragmentation burdens families, caretakers and patients.
Cincinnati Children’s is planning a follow up study that will use the qualitative input from caregivers to develop family centered solutions to improve care transitions from hospital-to-home.
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