The understated issue of caregiver anxiety for pediatric surgical hospital admissions: opening the blindfolds

AbstractKey messageHospitalization is a nerve-wrecking experience for patients and their families (Lam et al. in Int J Nurs Stud 43:535 –545, 2006). The financial burden of hospitalization is the prime perpetrator, however, multiple other factors also contribute significantly to the underlying problem which can be eliminated by efforts of the doctors and other healthcare workers and by modifying the hospital policies (Bassett et a l. in J Hosp Med 15:652–658, 2020). We can reduce the number of outpatient visits and switch to telemedicine for rescheduling the cases. The pre-anaesthetic clearance and all the relevant investigations can be done on a single OPD visit thereby reducing the requirement of repeated commutes to the hospital. The free of charge category of the hospital can be extended to the patient requiring prolonged hospital stay or for solid tumor patients who require repeated hospital admissions for chemotherapy. Association with child welfare Non-government organizations (NGO’s) can also solve major mon etary issues for parents of patients suffering from complex congenital anomalies and solid tumors. The pre-operative NPO period can be shortened to 2–4 h, antibiotic use can be completely avoided or minimized in clean elective cases, children living in the same city requiring dressing/catheter re moval after a few days (e.g. hypospadias, posterior sagittal anorectoplasty) can be discharged and called for a OPD visit after 5–7 days if the parents are wi...
Source: Pediatric Surgery International - Category: Surgery Source Type: research