Transition of Care

Patients who called an AL between September 1, 2011 and September 1, 2012 and reported being hospitalized within 30 days. A 500-bed, university-affiliated hospital Prospective cohort of 308 unique patients who were hospitalized or had outpatient surgery within 30 days preceding the call Findings: 37% and 47% of calls occurred within 24 or 48 hours of discharge, respectively 63% came from surgery patients despite surgery patients accounting for only 38% of the discharges Most common issues were: uncontrolled pain questions about medications aftercare instructions (eg, the care of surgical wounds) 30-day readmissions and urgent or emergent care visits were higher for patients who called the AL than for those who did not (15% vs 4% and 30% vs 7%, respectively, both P < 0.0001, (sample sizes were too small to accommodate robust matching or multivariate analyses) Journal of Hospital Medicine 2014;9:695–699. © 2014 Society of Hospital Medicine Changes in Medical Errors after Implementation of a Handoff Program