Empowerment programme for parents of extremely premature infants significantly reduced length of stay and readmission rates.
Acta Paediatr
; 103(7): 727-31, 2014 Jul.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-24766486
ABSTRACT
AIM:
Extremely premature infants experience long hospitalisation and high readmission rates within 30 days of discharge. This quality control investigation retrospectively explored the impact of the Creating Opportunities for Parent Empowerment (COPE©) programme on these rates in an all referral, Level-IV small baby intensive care unit setting.METHODS:
The parents of 303 extremely premature infants participated in the study. Of those, 135 were admitted before the implementation of COPE© and served as baseline historical controls, and the remaining 168 neonates received the intervention. Length of stay and readmission rates were analysed using parametric and nonparametric tests. Additional analyses were used to compare the two groups in terms of gestational age, birthweight and other acuity measures.RESULTS:
Neonates who received COPE© required significantly reduced lengths of stay than the control neonates (COPE© 127.1 ± 55.8 days vs. control 139.6 ± 61.9 days, p < 0.05) and significantly lower readmission rates (COPE© 23.9% vs. control 13.2%, p = 0.05).CONCLUSION:
The COPE© programme promoted active parental engagement in the unit and significantly reduced hospital stays and readmission rates. Future interventions should identify the specific components of the programme that support the parents of extremely premature infants during the various phases of hospitalisation.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Parents
/
Infant, Extremely Premature
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Newborn
Language:
En
Journal:
Acta Paediatr
Year:
2014
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Estados Unidos
Publication country:
NO
/
NORUEGA
/
NORWAY