Learning Objective #1: identify key aspect of postpartum discharge planning.

Learning Objective #2: identify key quality indicators for postpartum discharge planning.

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Managed care and cost containment in the healthcare system have shortened postpartum length of stay to 24 hours for a low-risk delivery. Quality of postpartum discharge planning (PDP) becomes the most important issue in maternity health management. This study applied Delphi technique to establish a model of the PDP and related quality indicators of postpartum care. 100 obstetric experts from nursing and medicine and from multiple healthcare and academic institutes were recruited to respond to three surveys related to the subject of care needs for the PDP and quality indicators for this service. Study results presented two facets of care needs related to the mother and the newborn child and two facets of quality indicators related to the clients (the parents and their relatives) and the healthcare delivery system. Eight care needs of the mother and the other eight of the newborn were identified. Major themes of care needs of the mother were nursing care of uterine, wound, hemorrhoids and breast, self-care ability, balanced postpartum diet, postpartum exercise, and breast feeding. Those for the newborn child were baby's development, problem management, vaccination, health assessment, metabolism screening, bathing, care of umbilical cord, identification of neonatal jaundice, parent-child interaction and relationship, and healthcare resources. Four most important quality indicators of clients were identified. The major themes were satisfaction of self- and baby-care ability, the level of recognition, acceptance, satisfaction to and utilization of the PDP. Seven indicators were selected to evaluate the quality of the health care delivery system. Major themes of these indicators were length of stay, readmission, the incidence rate, number of out patient visit, utilization of vaccination and well baby care. Findings of this study can be used for establishing clinical guidelines for postpartum care and the PDP. Future studies are encouraged to validate these findings by quantitative methodologies.