Eighth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

For many patients, discharging from hospital is a commonplace that requires no further care. But the rest need to receive more care after discharge in order to be assured about complete treatment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of discharge planning program on hospital readmission, quality of life, mother’s satisfaction, mother’s knowledge, and health outcomes on mothers and their children in patients discharged after childbirth in a University Hospital of Uremia, Iran. A case-control study was conducted including 39 in each intervention and control groups. Patients were randomized through balanced block randomization to receive discharge planning intervention or usual discharge. Discharge plan in this study had 12 steps and was designed in a booklet according to Re-Engineered Discharge (RED) method. After two months of intervention, data were collected in five measures of readmission, patient satisfaction, health outcomes, knowledge and quality of life. Data analysis was performed using SPSS.16.0. Seventy-five mothers with the mean of age 25.44 (SD 4.9) participated in the program, 38 in the control group and 37 in the intervention group. Discharge planning led to a significant improvement in the intervention participant’s satisfaction scores, number of health outcomes, and knowledge compared with those who didn’t receive discharge planning intervention. Maternal support programs for physical and emotional problems after discharge must be given more attention in health system of Iran. Service providers and policy makers can use these findings to design and implement early discharge planning for maternity care.