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Our review demonstrated follow-up contacts delivered within 7 days of hospital discharge likely have no impact on 30-day hospital readmissions, 30-day ED use, or patient satisfaction. Health care systems should consider the cost effectiveness of universal, brief post-discharge contacts on costly outcomes such as hospital readmissions and ED use. Brief post-discharge contacts should be balanced with the potential to target investments in more intensive post-discharge approaches focused on patients most likely to benefit from these interventions.
To mitigate hospital-to-home transition issues, follow-up contacts to patients in the week after hospital discharge have been a widely adopted strategy over the last decade. Despite this, the effectiveness of these interventions in reducing subsequent hospital readmission or ED use remains unclear. This systematic review assesses follow-up contacts delivered within 7 days of hospital discharge on ED visits and hospital readmissions within 30 days of hospital discharge, and patient satisfaction with care.
We identified 13 studies that assessed the impact of post-discharge interventions. Included studies evaluated adults with an acute medical hospitalization; 8 studies focused on populations defined as higher medical risks (eg, age, medical comorbidities). None of the studies focused on populations with acute psychiatric hospitalizations. Eleven post-discharge approaches consisted of a single telephone contact conducted within 3 days of hospital discharge. In a meta-analysis, post-discharge interventions within 7 days after leaving the hospital were not associated with a reduction in 30-day hospital readmissions or 30- day emergency department utilization when compared with usual care. Certainty of evidence supporting this conclusion was considered moderate, based primarily on the consistency of results across randomized studies. We found little supporting evidence that such brief, often 1-call follow-ups have an impact on 30-day acute care utilization. Findings should be tempered by a lack of information on intervention implementation across included studies.
Effectiveness of Post-Discharge Contacts on Health Care Utilization and Patient Satisfaction: A Systematic Review (Management Brief)
Boggan JC, Sankineni S, Dennis PA, et al. Effectiveness of Synchronous Postdischarge Contacts on Health Care Use and Patient Satisfaction: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Annals of Internal Medicine. Published online January 14, 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7326/ANNALS-24-01140.