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Joseph V. Cook, Jr, MD; Charles L. Woronick, PhD; Howard W. Wetstone, MD; Patricia Lariviere, RN, MS; David V. Williams
MedSpan Inc Hartford, Conn

JAMA. 1997;278(23):2065.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—Two articles^1,2 concerning early discharge of newborns came to contradictory conclusions concerning whether early discharge is associated with increased risk of rehospitalization, as discussed in the accompanying Commentary.³ This prompted us to relate the experience of MedSpan, a Connecticut-based, provider-sponsored managed care organization, with a voluntary early discharge program offered to our policyholders and the effect of Connecticut state legislation.

Mothers and their healthy infants who met physician-established criteria and volunteered to be discharged from the hospital within 30 hours of normal vaginal delivery were offered 2 skilled nursing visits at home, 16 hours of nanny care, and 1 extra pediatric office visit. We analyzed utilization of services among 77 consecutive mothers who used the program during a 19-month period beginning January 1, 1996 (unpublished data, August 1997). We found that 1 mother did not use any nursing visits, 5 used 1 visit, 70 used 2 visits, and 1 . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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