Purpose: To examine parents' and health care providers' perceptions of back transport from a tertiary care neonatal intensive care unit to a community hospital.
Design: Qualitative, hypothesis-generating, cross-sectional study utilizing focus group methodology.
Sample: Participants included 12 parents of back-transported infants insured by Medicaid, 6 regional NICU health care providers, and 17 community hospital special care nursery health care providers.
Main outcome measures: Participant perceptions of factors that support or impede successful back transport.
Results: Data from the focus groups were analyzed to identify five main themes: early communication about back transport, preparing parents for back transport, communication between hospitals at the time of back transport, follow-up and information exchange after back transport, and improving the back-transport experience for parents.