Design: Observational cross-sectional study which occurred 11/2022-2/2024.

Setting: Single tertiary care system in South Carolina, USA.

Patients or Participants: Care partners of English or Spanish speaking patients aged >18 years who were scheduled outpatient MIH were approached for the study. Exclusion criteria included patients with anticipated laparotomy or planned overnight admission. A goal sample size of 75 was selected after calculating rates of hysterectomy with a targeted 60% response rate.

Interventions: A 16-question survey evaluated care partner perspectives regarding same-day discharge and post-operative care. Responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Measurements and Main Results: Approximately 62% of care partners indicated they were “very comfortable” caring for the patient at home the night of surgery. When asked to rate the level of concern regarding same day discharge, 58% selected a score of 2 or below on a 5-point Likert scale, indicating low levels of concern. The majority of care partners also indicated lack of concern surrounding other areas post-operative care, with over 65% of respondents answering a score of 2 or less regarding medication administration (79%), nausea (67%), mobility assistance (68%), and toileting assistance (72%). A total of 38% of respondents reported this was their first experience with post-operative care.

Conclusion: This study showed most patient care partners indicate general comfortability with same day discharge following MIH, even with no prior experience in this realm. Although respondents suggested that post-operative pain and bleeding to be their main concerns for same day discharge, most respondents indicated they still have overall low levels of concern regarding these areas of post-operative care. The results are additive to existing literature and thus same day discharge continues to be reasonable option for many patients, especially concerning the support and comfortability of their care partner.