Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38618047›Full record

ArticleInternational journal of integrated care

The Effect of Coordinating the Outpatient Treatment across Medical Specialities for Patients With Multimorbidity.

Cathrine Bell, Charlotte Weiling Appel, Anders Prior, Anne Frølich, Asger Roer Pedersen, Peter Vedsted

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in International journal of integrated care. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–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

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. International Environmental Impact of CKD Care.Kidney international reports · 2026
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
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

6 authors.

Cathrine BellMedical Diagnostic Centre, University Research Clinic for Innovative Patient Pathways, Regional Hospital Central Jutland, Department of Clinical Medicine, Central Denmark Region, Denmark.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2313-7889
Charlotte Weiling AppelMedical Diagnostic Centre, University Research Clinic for Innovative Patient Pathways, Regional Hospital Central Jutland, Department of Clinical Medicine, Central Denmark Region, Denmark.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0397-9739
Anders PriorResearch Unit for General Practice, Aarhus, Denmark.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4053-3701
Anne FrølichInnovation and Research Centre for Multimorbidity, Slagelse Hospital, Region Zealand, Denmark.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0500-9923
Asger Roer PedersenMedical Diagnostic Centre, University Research Clinic for Innovative Patient Pathways, Regional Hospital Central Jutland, Department of Clinical Medicine, Central Denmark Region, Denmark.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6831-786X
Peter VedstedMedical Diagnostic Centre, University Research Clinic for Innovative Patient Pathways, Regional Hospital Central Jutland, Department of Clinical Medicine, Central Denmark Region, Denmark.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2113-5599

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Introduction: Patients with multimorbidity attend multiple outpatient clinics. We assessed the effects on hospital use of scheduling several outpatient appointments to same-day visits in a multidisciplinary outpatient pathway (MOP). Methods: This study used a quasi-experimental design. Eligible patients had multimorbidity, were aged ≥18 years and attended ≥2 outpatient clinics in five different specialties. Patients were identified through forthcoming appointments from August 2018 to March 2020 and divided into intervention group (alignment of appointments) and comparison group (no alignment). We used patient questionnaires and paired analyses to study care integration and treatment burden. Using negative binomial regression, we estimated healthcare utilisation as incidence rates ratios (IRRs) at one year before and one year after baseline for both groups and compared IRR ratios (IRRRs). Results: Intervention patients had a 19% reduction in hospital visits (IRRR: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.70-0.96) and a 17% reduction in blood samples (IRRR: 0.83, 0.73-0.96) compared to comparison patients. No effects were found for care integration, treatment burden, outpatient contacts, terminated outpatient trajectories, hospital admissions, days of admission or GP contacts. Conclusion: The MOP seemed to reduce the number of hospital visits and blood samples. These results should be further investigated in studies exploring the coordination of outpatient care for multimorbidity. Research question: Can an intervention of coordinating outpatient appointments to same-day visits combined with a multidisciplinary conference influence the utilisation of healthcare services and the patient-assessed integration of healthcare services and treatment burden among patients with multimorbidity?

Indexed as

delivery of health careDenmarkhospitalsinterventionmultimorbidityoutpatients

Identifiers

PMID38618047
PMCPMC11011960

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Registered trials

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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.