Why the study?
Does a discharge planning decision support tool accurately identify hospitalized pediatric patients who would benefit from early consult with discharge planners?
Does a discharge planning decision support tool accurately identify hospitalized pediatric patients who would benefit from early consult with discharge planners?
A decision support tool incorporating post-acute care needs can help systematically identify hospitalized pediatric patients who require early referral to discharge planners.
Substantial post-acute care needs may prioritize early pediatric referrals; hypothesis-generating and requires prospective validation before adoption.
PURPOSE: To develop and test a decision support tool that identifies patients who would benefit from early consult with discharge planners. DESIGN AND METHODS: A predictive, correlational design was used with parents/guardians of children (1 month to 18 years; N = 197). Data were collected by interviews and record reviews. Expert consensus determined referral to discharge planning. RESULTS: Mean age was 8.7 years; mean length of stay was 7.5 days. Forty percent (n = 79) were identified for early referral. The variable "substantial post-acute care needs" had the strongest association with expert consensus (internally validated AUC = 0.79). PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Findings from this study provide preliminary evidence for a decision support tool to improve the discharge planning process by reducing individual decision-making variability through systematic matching of patient needs to service delivery.
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Holland et al. (2014) studied this question.
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