Does increased access to primary care reduce hospital readmissions in veterans discharged from Veterans Affairs hospitals?
Increased access to primary care following discharge from Veterans Affairs hospitals paradoxically increased rehospitalization rates, despite improving patient satisfaction.
For veterans discharged from Veterans Affairs hospitals, the primary care intervention we studied increased rather than decreased the rate of rehospitalization, although patients in the intervention group were more satisfied with their care.
Weinberger et al. (1996) studied this question.