Early Discharge and Specialist Transitional Care

Abstract

A model has been designed to discharge patients early from the hospital by substituting a portion of hospital care with a comprehensive program of transitional home follow‐up by nurse specialists. The model, initially tested with very low birth weight infants, provides a framework for examining both the quality of care as reflected in patient outcomes and cost of care to specific patient groups. Its design documents nursing interventions and allows for comparisons of care by nurse specialists and other health care providers.