Do standardized, physician-performed, postdischarge phone calls reduce readmission rates and ED visits or improve patient satisfaction in pediatric patients after hospitalization?
Physician-performed postdischarge phone calls identify frequent medication-related transition issues in pediatric patients, though their impact on readmissions and ED visits remains unclear due to limited sample size.
Standardized, physician-performed, postdischarge phone calls identified frequent patient care issues related to difficulties with inpatient to outpatient transition, many of which were medication related. However, our study was underpowered to detect a statistically significant correlation with changes in readmission rates, ED visits, or patient satisfaction.
Heath et al. (Fri,) studied this question.