• Erin Platter, Michelle Y Hamline, Daniel J Tancredi, Erik Fernandez Y Garcia, and Jennifer L Rosenthal.
• Department of Pediatrics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia; and enp7px@virginia.edu.
• Hosp Pediatr. 2019 Jul 1; 9 (7): 516-522.

ObjectivesWritten discharge guidance for hospitalized pediatric patients should include language-appropriate key elements to ensure positive discharge outcomes. Our objective in this study was to determine the completeness of written pediatric discharge guidance and to test the hypothesis that Spanish-speaking families with limited English proficiency (LEP) receive less complete written discharge guidance than English-speaking families.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective review of written discharge guidance provided to 100 English- and 100 Spanish-speaking families at an urban nonfreestanding children's hospital to assess the inclusion of key elements: follow-up plan, contingency plan, telephone contact, discharge medications, discharge diagnosis, and hospital course. We compared the completeness of discharge guidance (number of elements provided among number of applicable elements) between English- versus Spanish-speaking families.ResultsWhen evaluating discharge guidance for the presence of key elements in any language, there was no significant difference between English- and Spanish-speaking families. However, the mean completeness of language-appropriate discharge guidance for English- and Spanish-speaking families was 87.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] 84.4%-91.1%) and 16.0% (95% CI 11.5%-20.4%), respectively. The ordinal logistic regression examining the association between the number of key element deficits and English- (reference group) versus Spanish-speaking families demonstrated an adjusted odds ratio of 339.8 (95% CI 112.4-1027.5).ConclusionsFew Spanish-speaking families with LEP receive written discharge guidance in their preferred language. Complete, language-appropriate discharge guidance was identified as an area for improvement efforts to work toward improving care provided to families with LEP.Copyright © 2019 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

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