• Pediatric emergency care · Aug 1997

    Comparative Study

    A simple intervention for improving telephone contact of patients discharged from the emergency department.

    • D J Isaacman, H Khine, and J D Losek.
    • Department of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
    • Pediatr Emerg Care. 1997 Aug 1;13(4):256-8.

    ObjectiveTo determine if emergency department (ED) follow-up contact rates can be improved by confirming a best contact telephone number with the patient prior to discharge.Design/SettingProspective comparison of intervention and control groups taken from convenience samples of ED patients from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh (CHP) and Children's Hospital of Wisconsin (CHW).ParticipantsOne hundred eighty-eight (188) patients (138 from CHP and 50 from CHW) who had x-rays and laboratory studies done in the ED were interviewed by the investigators prior to discharge (intervention group) and 305 control patients (256 from CHP, 49 from CHW) identified from ED log books.InterventionPrior to discharging the patient from the ED, the investigators verified and/or corrected the best contact number for a follow-up phone call with each intervention patient. Within 24 hours of each visit, a follow-up call was made to each intervention and control patient during one of three time intervals spaced between 8 AM and 10 PM.ResultsA total of 29 patients, or 15.4%, of the intervention group, gave a telephone number that differed from the one listed in the patient's medical record. Of the CHP group, 93.5% (129/138) of intervention patients and 78.5% (201/256) of the control patients were successfully contacted (P < 0.001). Of the CHW group, 96% (48/50) of intervention patients, and 94% (46/49) of control patients were successfully contacted (P = NS). Successful contact of control patients was greater in CHW than CHP (46/49 vs 201/256, P = 0.02).ConclusionsA significant proportion of telephone numbers listed in the ED medical records are incorrect, but the frequency of inaccuracy may be institution-dependent. Confirming the patient's "best contact" number can significantly increase the successful contact of ED patients.

      Pubmed     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…