Evidence map›Paper›PMID 18452048›Full record

Trial reportJournal of general internal medicine2008

Redefining and redesigning hospital discharge to enhance patient care: a randomized controlled study.

Richard B Balaban, Joel S Weissman, Peter A Samuel, Stephanie Woolhandler

Abstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Journal of general internal medicine, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 67 papers, 12 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
67citing papers in PubMed, 12 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

67 citing papers in PubMed, 12 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
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  3. Discharge planning from hospital.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022
    Pooled it
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  9. Discharge planning from hospital.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016
    Pooled it
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  12. Discharge planning in chronic conditions: an evidence-based analysis.Ontario health technology assessment series · 2013
    Pooled it
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  17. Feasibility and evaluation of a pilot community health worker intervention to reduce hospital readmissions.International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care · 2014
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  19. Article
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7 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Richard B BalabanDepartment of Medicine, Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge, MA, USA. rbalaban@massmed.org
Joel S Weissman
Peter A Samuel
Stephanie Woolhandler

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPatients are routinely ill-prepared for the transition from hospital to home. Inadequate communication between Hospitalists and primary care providers can further compromise post-discharge care. Redesigning the discharge process may improve the continuity and the quality of patient care.

objectivesTo evaluate a low-cost intervention designed to promptly reconnect patients to their "medical home" after hospital discharge.

designRandomized controlled study. Intervention patients received a "user-friendly" Patient Discharge Form, and upon arrival at home, a telephone outreach from a nurse at their primary care site.

participantsA culturally and linguistically diverse group of patients admitted to a small community teaching hospital. MEASUREMENTS: Four undesirable outcomes were measured after hospital discharge: (1) no outpatient follow-up within 21 days; (2) readmission within 31 days; (3) emergency department visit within 31 days; and (4) failure by the primary care provider to complete an outpatient workup recommended by the hospital doctors. Outcomes of the intervention group were compared to concurrent and historical controls.

resultsOnly 25.5% of intervention patients had 1 or more undesirable outcomes compared to 55.1% of the concurrent and 55.0% of the historical controls. Notably, only 14.9% of the intervention patients failed to follow-up within 21 days compared to 40.8% of the concurrent and 35.0% of the historical controls. Only 11.5% of recommended outpatient workups in the intervention group were incomplete versus 31.3% in the concurrent and 31.0% in the historical controls.

conclusionsA low-cost discharge-transfer intervention may improve the rates of outpatient follow-up and of completed workups after hospital discharge.

Indexed as

Quality of Health CareAgedChi-Square DistributionCommunicationContinuity of Patient CareFemaleHospitalistsHospitals, CommunityHumansLength of StayMaleMiddle AgedPatient DischargePrimary Health CareTelephone

Identifiers

PMID18452048
PMCPMC2517968

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.