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Estimating discharge dates using routinely collected data: improving the preparedness of parents of preterm infants for discharge home
  1. Peter J Fleming,
  2. Jennifer Ingram,
  3. Debbie Johnson,
  4. Peter S Blair
  1. Centre for Child and Adolescent Health, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
  1. Correspondence to Professor Peter Fleming, Centre for Child and Adolescent Health, St Michaels Hospital, Southwell St, Bristol BS2 8EG, UK; peter.fleming{at}bristol.ac.uk

Abstract

The length of stay for moderately preterm infants has progressively become shorter in the UK in recent years but staff still commonly inform parents that their baby will go home around their estimated date of delivery (EDD). Parents need as much notice as possible to prepare for the discharge of their baby, and to gain the necessary skills and knowledge to care for their infant safely. We report the use of routinely collected neonatal data to develop and implement a simple centile chart for date of discharge from hospital, which allows staff and parents to predict the likely discharge date more accurately for preterm infants, most of whom now go home more than 3 weeks before their EDD. This information allows better and timelier planning for discharge of such infants, by parents and staff.

  • Neonatology
  • Audit
  • Discharge Planning
  • Length of Stay

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon this work, for commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2016-310944

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors PJF originated the idea, collected the data and wrote the first draft. JI, PSB and DJ all contributed to the development and validation of the approach. All authors contributed to writing the paper, and all have seen and approved the final version.

    • Funding The project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Service & Delivery Research programme (project number 11/1015/09). The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the HS&DR programme, NIHR, NHS or the Department of Health. This study was approved by the City and East NRES Committee, London. REC reference 12/LO/0944.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Ethics approval City and East NRES Committee, London. REC reference 12/LO/0944.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement The data used are specific to the neonatal units included, for the time period as defined, so would not be relevant for other units or time periods. All UK neonatal units have access to similar data relating to their own lengths of stay.