Abstract
Approximately 15% of elderly patients are readmitted within 28 days of discharge. This costs the NHS and patients. Previous studies show telephone contact with patients post-discharge can reduce readmission rates. This service evaluation used a cohort design and compared 30-day emergency readmission rate in patients identified to receive a community nurse follow-up with patients where no attempt was made. 756 patients across seven hospital wards were identified; 303 were identified for the intervention and 453 in a comparison group. Hospital admission and readmission data was extracted over 6 months. Where an attempt to contact a patient was made post-discharge, the readmission rate was 9.24% compared to 15.67% where no attempt to contact was made (p=0.011). After adjustment for confounding using logistic regression, there was evidence of reduced readmissions in the ‘attempt to contact’ group odds ratio = 1.93 (95% confidence interval = 1.06–3.52, p=0.033). Of the patients who community nurses attempted to contact, 288 were contacted, and 202 received a home visit with general practitioner referral and medications advice being the most common interventions initiated. This service evaluation shows that a simple intervention where community nurses attempt to contact and visit geriatric patients after discharge causes a significant reduction in 30-day hospital readmissions.Citation
Vernon, D., Brown, J. E., Griffiths, E., Nevill, A. M. and Pickney, M. (2019) Reducing readmission rates through a discharge follow-up service, Future Healthcare Journal, 6(2), pp. 114-117.Publisher
Royal College of PhysiciansJournal
Future Healthcare JournalAdditional Links
http://futurehospital.rcpjournal.org/content/6/2/114Type
Journal articleLanguage
enISSN
2055-3323ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.7861/futurehosp.6-2-114
Scopus Count
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/