
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, November 29, 1994                   TAG: 9411290125
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

SENDING NEW MOMS HOME EARLY ADVISED

Virginia could save $10 million in Medicaid costs next year through expansion of a program that sends many maternity patients home 24 hours after delivery.

Barbara Brown, director of clinical information services for the Virginia Hospital Association, said Monday that the Home Tomorrow program has been working well for two years at Fairfax Hospital.

Several other hospitals implemented the program July 1, and more will join the effort next year, Brown said. The aim is to expand the program to every area of the state.

However, the director of Old Dominion University's perinatal/neonatal graduate program is worried about new mothers being sent home too soon.

``There are mothers that are prepared to go home in a day and there are others that are not,'' Laurel Garzon said in a telephone interview. ``There needs to be some flexibility. It should be a medical decision.''

The typical stay for a Medicaid patient with a routine delivery has been about three days.

- Associated Press

by CNB