Hospital-to-Home Interventions, Use, and Satisfaction: A Meta-analysis

Hospital-to-home transitions are critical opportunities to promote patient safety and high-quality care. However, such transitions are often fraught with difficulties associated with increased health care use and poor patient satisfaction.

In this review, we determine which pediatric hospital discharge interventions affect subsequent health care use or parental satisfaction compared with usual care.

We searched 7 bibliographic databases and 5 pediatric journals.

Inclusion criteria were: (1) available in English, (2) focused on children <18 years of age, (3) pediatric data reported separately from adult data, (4) not focused on normal newborns or pregnancy, (5) discharge intervention implemented in the inpatient setting, and (6) outcomes of health care use or caregiver satisfaction. Reviews, case studies, and commentaries were excluded.

Two reviewers independently abstracted data using modified Cochrane data collection forms and assessed quality using modified Downs and Black checklists.

Seventy one articles met inclusion criteria. Although most interventions improved satisfaction, interventions variably reduced use. Interventions focused on follow-up care, discharge planning, teach back-based parental education, and contingency planning were associated with reduced use across patient groups. Bundled care coordination and family engagement interventions were associated with lower use in patients with chronic illnesses and neonates.

Variability limited findings and reduced generalizability.

In this review, we highlight the utility of a pediatric discharge bundle in reducing health care use. Coordinating follow-up, discharge planning, teach back-based parental education, and contingency planning are potential foci for future efforts to improve hospital-to-home transitions.