Food-based Support for Hospitalized Children and Their Families

Food-based Randomized Trial for Enhancing Support of Hospitalized Children and Their Families

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if an intervention to provide food support to families who are part of government or self-pay insurances will provide benefits. The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Determine the effect of implementing an in-hospital food support intervention for low-income parents on reutilization and family-centered outcomes.
• Among families with baseline food insecurity, determine the effectiveness of a post-discharge food support intervention and as-needed social work referral on reutilization and family-centered outcomes.

Researchers will compare the in-hospital food support intervention and will be rolled out to sequential hospital units. In addition, the post-discharge food support intervention will be compared to standard discharge.

Some participants will:

• Receive in-hospital meal cards or standard care during hospitalization
• Receive post-discharge food support intervention or standard discharge
• Complete a 14-day post discharge follow-up survey

Inclusion Criteria:

• All families of patients less than 21 years of age with Medicaid insurance or uninsured will be eligible

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients admitted for end-of-life care, patients who will be discharged to a location other than home, patients who live independently, and patients in county custody.