Sending parents home with their healthy infants sooner, LHSC establishes permanent early discharge program

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A new program being offered at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) hopes to help new parents and their infants recover in the comfort of their own homes – freeing up valuable hospital beds and reducing burden on the system.

The Early Discharge Program allows parents and newborns to be discharged, and have a midwife follow up with them at home to complete screening and assessments as opposed to having those take place in the hospital.

Newborn screening tests are completed in the first 24-48 hours of a birth, which previously meant that the new parent and baby had to remain in hospital until these tests were completed, even if they were ready to go home.

“Through the Early Discharge Program, we can help them transition from hospital to home quicker while still meeting these screening timeframes,” explained Jacqueline Ferreira, midwife at LHSC

Initially offered in 2021 and 2022 through temporary funding, the program was brought back permanently earlier this fall.

“Many patients who give birth express a desire to return home as soon as possible and this program allows them to do just that,” shared Ferreira.

The program is mostly offered to patients that live in London – if those patients meet all eligibility criteria, including having no history of conditions that could lead to complications, and are managing pain well.

The program is staffed by LHSC midwives - meaning that a patient doesn’t need to have their own midwife to participate – who visit the home the day after the patient is discharged and assesses the wellbeing of the parent and child. Following the visit, the patient is advised to follow up with their primary care practitioner.

Three midwives on staff for this program can conduct four visits per day, and the team has already served more than 50 families since the program’s official launch on September 30.