• Plos One · Jan 2014

    Randomized Controlled Trial

    Do post discharge phone calls improve care transitions? A cluster-randomized trial.

    • Christine Soong, Bochra Kurabi, David Wells, Lesley Caines, Matthew W Morgan, Rebecca Ramsden, and Chaim M Bell.
    • Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Department of Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada.
    • Plos One. 2014 Jan 1; 9 (11): e112230.

    ImportanceThe transition from hospital to home can expose patients to adverse events during the post discharge period. Post discharge care including phone calls may provide support for patients returning home but the impact on care transitions is unknown.ObjectiveTo examine the effect of a 72-hour post discharge phone call on the patient's transition of care experience.DesignCluster-randomized control trial.SettingUrban, academic medical center.ParticipantsGeneral medical patients age 18 and older discharged home after hospitalization.Main Outcomes And MeasuresPrimary outcome measure was the Care Transition Measure (CTM-3) score, a validated measure of the quality of care transitions. Secondary measures included self-reported adherence to medication and follow up plans, and 30-day composite of emergency department (ED) visits and hospital readmission.Results328 patients were included in the study over an 6-month period. 114 (69%) received a post discharge phone call, and 214 of all patients in the study completed the follow outcome survey (65% response rate). A small difference in CTM-3 scores was observed between the intervention and control groups (1.87 points, 95% CI 0.47-3.27, p = 0.01). Self-reported adherence to treatment plans, ED visits, and emergency readmission rates were similar between the two groups (odds ratio 0.57, 95% CI 0.13-2.45, 1.20, 95% CI 0.61-2.37, and 1.18, 95% CI 0.53-2.61, respectively).Conclusions And RelevanceA single post discharge phone call had a small impact on the quality of care transitions and no effect on hospital utilization. Higher intensity post discharge support may be required to improve the patient experience upon returning home.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT01580774.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…