Suivi postnatal à domicile après un congé précoce : Critères de sélection et Appréciation du délai

Patient satisfaction is now recognized as part of a measure of quality of care. In Québec, early discharge following normal delivery is common practice. Early discharge was proven to have no impact on the mother’s and baby’s health status when adequate follow-up is ensure. Women’s seems to appreciate early discharge but few studies have explored the factors contributing to the expression of satisfaction regarding home visits in the context of postnatal early discharge. Objectives: This study as two main objectives. First, we want to identify which characteristics are associated with the delay of the first postnatal visit. Second, we want to determine which factors are contributing to the appreciation of the visit’s delay. Methods : Data were obtained through a telephone survey conducted in the province of Quebec between January 2002 and January 2003. Mothers that had a normal vaginal delivery and a healthy baby were reached one month after giving birth (n=1548). For analysis purposes, mothers with length of stay above 60 hours, less than 37 week of pregnancy and a newborn weighing less than 2500 g at birth were cut off leaving a sample of 1351 mothers. Results: 86.2% of the mothers have been offered a postnatal visit. Most women (80.2%) received a home visit within three days and almost a third (28.1%) within the first 24 hours after hospital discharge. When compared to the mothers who received the visit within 2 or 3 days, mothers that received a visit within the first 24 hours found the hospital stay too short (p=0.018) but received a longer telephone call by the nurse (p=0.009). These mothers gave birth to smaller babies (p=0.052) whom also presented jaundiced while being in the hospital (p=0.100). Finally, at discharge, these mothers perceive their baby to be less healthy (p=0.029).  On the other end, 86.4 % of all mothers are satisfied with the delay of the first postnatal visit, while 11.6% of them found it too short and 2.3% too long. For the mothers visited the first day, logistic regression analysis reveals that some characteristics as: having only one postnatal visit, a family income of more than 40 000$, perceived hospital stay as too long and not breastfeeding, are significantly associated with the perception of having a visit too soon after hospital discharge. For mothers visited on the second or third day after discharge, the perception that the delay was too short is only significantly associated with having a baby’s medical appointment within the first two weeks and one postnatal visit. Conclusion: Quebec’s postnatal visit program seems to offer a visit within an adequate length of time for the majority of mothers. Results of this study suggest that the time after the hospital discharge for the first visit might not be optimal for all mothers. This allows us to consider that some mothers would have appreciated a second postnatal visit. Further studies are needed to pursue analysis of the delays between discharge and the first visit in order to better meet the needs of mothers. Keywords :Satisfaction, user evaluation, quality of care, universal program, postnatal care, postpartum early discharge, home visit, timing, service provision

Keyphrases: Satisfaction, Satisfaction, universal program, postnatal care, early discharge in obstetrics, home visit, timing, service provision, quality of care, user evaluation