Southern medical journal
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Southern medical journal · Aug 2021
Impact of Depressive Symptomology on Pain and Function during Recovery after Total Joint Arthroplasty.
To determine the effect of preoperative depressive symptoms on patient-reported function and pain following total joint arthroplasty (TJA) after controlling for potential confounding factors; how depressive symptoms changed after TJA; and the impact of postoperative depressive symptoms on recovery. ⋯ Although depressive symptoms improve postoperatively, preoperative depressive symptoms, especially for those with probable depressive symptomology, may negatively affect postoperative pain and functional recovery even after risk adjustment.
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Southern medical journal · Aug 2021
Improving the Quality of Inpatient Discharge Instructions: An Evaluation and Implementation of Best Practices.
Little is known about whether improving the quality of written discharge instructions can result in improved readmission rates and whether there are differences in the quality of discharge instructions based on provider and patient characteristics. We set out to determine provider characteristics associated with high quality discharge instructions and whether redesigned discharge instructions would lead to improvement in their quality and reduce hospital readmission rates. ⋯ Although an education intervention was ineffective in improving discharge instruction quality, a redesigned discharge instructions template did improve the quality of patient discharge instructions. Neither intervention led to a meaningful change in readmission rates. We also found significant differences in the quality of discharge instructions based on the level of training of the author of the discharge instructions.