The readiness for hospital discharge of patients after acute myocardial infarction: a new self-reported questionnaire

Introduction. Medical care providers are responsible for adequate preparation of patients for discharge from the hospital. The purpose of this study was to validate a new self-reported questionnaire assessing the readiness of patients for hospital discharge. Methods. The Readiness for Hospital Discharge after Myocardial Infarction Scale (RHD MIS) was validated in 201 patients, 57 (29%) females and 144 (71%) males (mean age 63.3 ± 11.3), hospitalised due to myocardial infarction. Results. For the considered 23 items the a-Cronbach coefficient was 0.789, indicating a high level of reliability and homogeneity of the questionnaire. The RHD MIS fulfilled the assumption of factor analysis: the determinant of correlation matrix was 0.001, Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin (K-M-O) statistic was 0.723, and the Bartlett' test of sphericity was statistically significant. The analysis of internal consistency of the three areas confirm the rightness of the distinguishing of three subscales. Answers to each item were assigned a score from 0 to 3. The highest total score is 69 points. The total score of the scale and total scores of the subscales have skewed distributions and statistically significant results of Shapiro-Wilk test (p < 0.001). The scoring less than 44 points for the entire questionnaire indicates low readiness, obtaining between 44 and 57 points indicates medium readiness, and scores over 57 points are classified as high readiness for discharge from hospital. Conclusions. The validation procedure revealed that RHD MIS is a reliable and homogeneous tool to measure the readiness of patients for hospital discharge. The set of items divided into three subscales allows subjective and objective evaluation of the patient's knowledge and expectations. Further investigation is needed to assess the potential impact of RHD MIS scoring on long-term outcome.