Optimizing the hospital discharge process to facilitate family-centered care for well newborns

The perceptions of discharge readiness differ among caregivers and providers. An efficient planning process ensures timely attainment of discharge readiness. Our aim was to increase the percentage of discharge orders placed by 10 a.m. from 0.5% to 10% within 6 months thereby improving discharge readiness.

We conducted a quality improvement initiative in the newborn nursery between March 2021 and June 2022 (n = 2307). We implemented a physician-led early discharge huddle and standardized the newborn screen (NBS) and circumcision process.

By 10 a.m., our primary outcome measure, discharge orders, improved from 0.5 to 19%. Our process measures also increased. NBS specimens collected improved from 56 % to 98 % and circumcision rates increased from 66 to 88%. Balancing measure of postpartum hospital days remained stable.

Optimizing family-centered discharge processes by addressing key drivers is essential and can be achieved without an increase in postpartum hospital days.