Overnight accommodations for visitors and outpatients: a nationwide study.
With the trend toward greater emphasis on ambulatory care and preadmission testing and the need to minimize travel and lodging costs for visitors and outpatients, a closer look at the hospital's role in arranging overnight accommodations becomes necessary. Unfortunately, little literature is available concerning the different types of overnight accommodations arranged by hospitals. The hospital interested in information on how it might upgrade its services to visitors and outpatients must rely primarily on brief descriptions of individual situations such as hospital-owned hotels or hostels and Ronald McDonald Houses. Although the literature indicates that some hospitals do offer some types of overnight accommodation services, the array of arrangements available and the level of hospital involvement is not always clear. Given this lack of information, the staff of the Patient and Visitor Participation Project of the University of Michigan Hospitals decided to conduct a nationwide study.
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003625:Data Collection; D006761:Hospitals; D006798:Housing; D006801:Humans; D014481:United States; D014789:Visitors to Patients