Paediatric day-care surgery - Increased parental participation reduces costs

In this paper, the marginal or incremental consequences of increased parental participation in a Swedish paediatric day-care surgery unit are analysed. Information about the parental role and instruction concerning post-operative treatment caused parents to assume a greater share of their child's postoperative care. This resulted in several advantages for the involved participants. Children and their parents spent a shorter time at the hospital and costs attributable to nursing care were consequently reduced by 11%.