Perinatal care across the continuum: early discharge and nursing home follow-up.

Efforts to control health care costs have resulted in earlier hospital discharge of both perinatal and neonatal patients. While earlier discharge may reduce hospital charges, it can increase families' burden of care, stress, and expenses and postdischarge complications may go undetected. A number of programs of home follow-up care have been developed in response to earlier hospital discharge. Nursing's challenge is to develop and implement the most effective and cost-efficient services acceptable and available to all perinatal and neonatal patients who need them.