47 | From Discharge to Home: Insights for Providers and Families - Part 1
EPISODE 47
This is the first episode in a two-part podcast series, From Discharge to Home: Insights for Providers and Families, brought to you in collaboration with AngelEye Health. This series was created to provide insights for both healthcare providers and families navigating the NICU discharge process.
Our goal is for the series to be educational, informative, and empowering; emphasizing how technology, like AngelEye’s NICU2Home, along with NICU Alumni’s support, can help families and care teams during the critical transition after graduating from the NICU, to going home, and beyond.
Part 1: Provider Perspectives on Improving NICU Discharge Planning
In Part 1, we sit down with Dr. Sue Bowles, a leader in the Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative’s Homeward Bound initiative, and Jaylee Hilliard, VP of Clinical Strategy at AngelEye Health and a two-time NICU mom.
Together, we discuss how quality improvement initiatives like Homeward Bound are reshaping the discharge planning process across hospitals in Florida, and how AngelEye is prioritizing NICU discharge planning through their NICU2Home solution.
We also want to shout out that the Homeward Bound QI Initiative was developed through the use of the Interdisciplinary NICU Discharge Guidelines published by the National Perinatal Association (NPA). AngelEye proudly sponsored open access to those guidelines and incorporated them into the development of NICU2Home as well.
Quick Notes from the Episode:
The transition from the NICU is difficult and overwhelming for families and parents often feel unprepared when taking their baby home from the NICU. The data supports this.
Jaylee pointed out that what she thought as a director and a NICU nurse prior to going through the experience herself was very different from what the reality was for her.
More about Homeward Bound!
This Quality Improvement initiative aimed to standardize discharge processes across hospitals in Florida.
It was noted that one of the biggest challenges encountered by hospitals during this initiative was the patient hand off from NICU care to Pediatrician care.
At the start of the initiative, only 18% of Hospitals who participated had pediatrician recommendations and a process to follow up the transition of patient care. By the end of the initiative 77% of hospitals had a plan in place.
Data-driven approaches like this help hospitals track progress and improve outcomes.
More about NICU2Home!
The NICU2Home solution from AngelEye Health provides ongoing support and resources for families admitted to the NICU as well as post-discharge.
NICU2Home has a library of more than 800 pieces education, resources, and information that can be used to provide pertinent information to each family as it related to each baby and family's unique experience.
This solution also includes a feature called Daily Updates, which provides families with a 24-hour snapshot of their baby’s health record, simplified into clear visuals and easy-to-understand explanations.
Post-discharge, NICU2Home offers ongoing support through reminders for key milestones, like three-, six-, and nine-month well-child visits. Families also receive helpful prompts with suggested questions to ask at appointments and guidance on what information to bring along.
Resources and Links mentioned:
SPECIAL THANKS:
A special thanks to AngelEye Health for collaborating with us to create this special series in honor of NICU Awareness Month!
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You can also support our mission and help create brighter futures for babies that have graduated from the NICU (who we affectionately refer to as NICU Alumni) and their families by donating here.
The purpose of this podcast is for entertainment only and should not be viewed as medical advice.