Discharge Planning for Elderly Patients in the Emergency Department: Use of a Brief Phone Call After Discharge to Improve Medication Utilization and Physician Follow-up

University of North Carolina (UNC)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Patient Discharge

Treatments: Other: Satisfaction survey; Other: Control group --- no intervention; Other: Phone call follow-up

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01207180

10-0978

Details and patient eligibility

About

The investigators hypothesize that the acquisition and correct utilization of medications as well as arranging and attending follow-up appointments will improve as a result of a phone call intervention 1-3 days after elderly patients are discharged from the emergency department (ED).

Full description

Older patients seen in the ED are at high risk of functional decline and return visits to the ED. Previous studies have shown that a comprehensive assessment by a geriatric specialist at the time of discharge from the ED along with extensive integration with home services and/or referral to community services can decrease functional decline and return visits to the ED as well as increase patient satisfaction, but this intervention is resource intensive requiring a geriatric discharge specialist to be available to the emergency department 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week. It is also known that in other patient populations telephone reminders to make follow up appointments can increase rate of follow up and that comprehension of discharge instructions is the primary barrier to compliance with discharge instructions. It has been shown that telephone follow-up interviews are feasible for geriatric patients discharged from the ED, and that many elderly patients discharged from the ED do not understand their discharge instructions or attend follow-up appointments. However, there are no published studies evaluating whether a follow up telephone call after discharge from the ED can improve patient compliance with the medical treatment plan including obtaining follow - up appointments and obtaining prescribed medications as well as using them appropriately. We seek to determine if we can increase compliance with medications and outpatient follow up with a phone call from a nurse provider 1-3 days after discharge.

Enrollment: 157 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 65+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age 65 or over
• Discharged from the UNC emergency department

Exclusion criteria

• In the hospital at the time of phone call follow-up
• Neither the patient nor their responsible party are able to pass a standardized test to assess cognitive function

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

---

157 participants in 3 patient groups, including a placebo group

Follow-up phone call from Nurse

Experimental group

Description:

Patients in this are will receive a phone call follow-up from a nurse 1-3 days after their discharge from the ED.

Treatment:

Other: Phone call follow-up

Satisfaction survey

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

This group of patients will receive a phone call from a student who will conduct a brief satisfaction survey of the patient's experience in the ED.

Treatment:

Other: Satisfaction survey

Control group

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Patients in this group will receive no phone call at 1-3 days.

Treatment:

Other: Control group --- no intervention