Consumerism and Innovation in Pediatric Primary Care

Abstract

cians to more easily track readiness for discharge as patients improve. Consequently, our staff is able to partner efficiently with families to complete tasks, such as education, follow-up appointments, and prescriptions, prior to the anticipated discharge time.At the start of our study enrollment, colleagues also implemented standardized discharge instructions that are reviewed with families before they go home and included in their discharge paperwork. 4 The instructions are written at or below the seventh-grade reading level and use plain language to mitigate health literacy barriers; they include information on who and when to call for help that aligns with the red flags that were reviewed on the nurse-led telephone calls and described in the article. 1 Most patients included in our study received these instructions on discharge from the Hospital Medicine service. Patients who did not receive the templated instructions should have had an equal chance of being randomized to either the control or intervention groups, thus not introducing a source of bias in the results. All families receive after-visit summary paperwork at discharge that is standardized through the electronic health record and includes an updated medication list, as well as discharge instructions and other pertinent information such as follow-up appointments.In summary, our well-described 2-4 discharge process is quite consistent across the acute care population included in the study and includes standardized discharge goals as well as standardized verbal and written information at discharge. We hope that this additional clarity around the discharge context at our institution aids readers' ability to generalize the results to their own care systems.