Dataset Information

Comparison of effects between home visits with telephone calls and telephone calls only for transitional discharge support: a randomised controlled trial.

ABSTRACT:

Background

home visits and telephone calls are two often used approaches in transitional care but their differential effects are unknown.

Objective

to examine the overall effects of a transitional care programme for discharged medical patients and the differential effects of telephone calls only.

Design

randomised controlled trial.

Setting

a regional hospital in Hong Kong.

Participants

patients discharged from medical units fitting the inclusion criteria (n = 610) were randomly assigned to: control ('control', n = 210), home visits with calls ('home', n = 196) and calls only ('call', n = 204).

Intervention

the home groups received alternative home visits and calls and the call groups calls only for 4 weeks. The control group received two placebo calls. The nurse case manager was supported by nursing students in delivering the interventions.

Results

the home visit group (after 4 weeks 10.7%, after 12 weeks 21.4%) and the call group (11.8, 20.6%) had lower readmission rates than the control group (17.6, 25.7%). Significance differences were detected in intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis for the home and intervention group (home and call combined) at 4 weeks. In the per-protocol analysis (PPA) results, significant differences were found in all groups at 4 weeks. There was significant improvement in quality of life, self-efficacy and satisfaction in both ITT and PPA for the study groups.

Conclusions

this study has found that bundled interventions involving both home visits and calls are more effective in reducing readmissions. Many of the transitional care programmes use all-qualified nurses, and this study reveals that a mixed skills model seems to bring about positive effects as well.

SUBMITTER: Wong FK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3861338 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Comparison of effects between home visits with telephone calls and telephone calls only for transitional discharge support: a randomised controlled trial.

Wong Frances Kam Yuet FK Chow Susan Ka Yee SK Chan Tony Moon Fai TM Tam Stanley Kui Fu SK

Age and ageing 20130826 1

<h4>Background</h4>home visits and telephone calls are two often used approaches in transitional care but their differential effects are unknown.<h4>Objective</h4>to examine the overall effects of a transitional care programme for discharged medical patients and the differential effects of telephone calls only.<h4>Design</h4>randomised controlled trial.<h4>Setting</h4>a regional hospital in Hong Kong.<h4>Participants</h4>patients discharged from medical units fitting the inclusion criteria (n = ...[more]

PMID: 23978408

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Project description:BackgroundSeveral care transition interventions propose that post-discharge phone calls can reduce adverse events and decrease costly return visits to the hospital. However, given the multi-faceted nature of most care transitions interventions, the true relationship between post-discharge phone calls and readmissions in a real world setting is uncertain.ObjectiveTo determine the effect of receiving a post-discharge telephone call on all-cause 30-day readmission in a general medicine population.DesignRetrospective observational study.ParticipantsPatients discharged home from the Medicine Service at a tertiary care academic medical center between November 2010 and May 2012.InterventionPatients received two telephone call attempts by a nurse within 72 h of discharge. Nurses followed a standard script to address issues associated with readmission.Main outcome and measuresBilling data captured readmissions. We used logistic regression-adjusted patient and clinical covariates as well as a propensity score representing likelihood of being called to determine the association between call receipt and risk for readmission.Key resultsThere were 5,507 eligible patients. In unadjusted analyses, patients who received a call and completed the intervention were significantly less likely to be readmitted compared to those who did not [155 (5.8 %) vs 123 (8.6 %), p < 0.01]. In multivariable models adjusting for socio-demographic and clinical covariates alone, completing a post-discharge telephone call intervention was associated with lower odds for readmission (AOR 0.71; 95 % CI: 0.55-0.91). However, when models adjusted for the likelihood of receiving the phone call using the propensity score, no association between call receipt and readmission was observed (AOR 0.91; 95%CI: 0.69-1.20).ConclusionsEffectiveness of post-discharge phone call programs may be more related to whether patients are able to answer a phone call than to the care delivered by the phone call. Programs would benefit from improving their ability to perform phone outreach while simultaneously improving on the care delivered during the calls.

Project description:BackgroundThe prevalence of knee osteoarthritis is increasing worldwide. Obesity is an important modifiable risk factor for both the incidence and progression of knee osteoarthritis. Consequently, international guidelines recommend all patients with knee osteoarthritis who are overweight receive support to lose weight. However, few overweight patients with this condition receive care to support weight loss. Telephone-based interventions are one potential solution to provide scalable care to the many patients with knee osteoarthritis. The objective of this study is to evaluate, from a societal perspective, the cost-utility and cost-effectiveness of a telephone-based weight management and healthy lifestyle service for patients with knee osteoarthritis, who are overweight or obese.MethodsAn economic evaluation was undertaken alongside a pragmatic randomised controlled trial. Between May 19 and June 30, 2015, 120 patients with knee osteoarthritis were randomly assigned to an intervention or usual care control group in a 1:1 ratio. Participants in the intervention group received a referral to an existing non-disease specific 6-month telephone-based weight management and healthy lifestyle service. Quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) was the utility measure and knee pain intensity, disability, weight, and body mass index (BMI) were the clinical measures of effect. Costs included intervention costs, healthcare utilisation costs (healthcare services and medication use) and absenteeism costs due to knee pain. Data was collected at baseline, 6 weeks and 26 weeks. The primary cost-effectiveness analysis was performed from the societal perspective.ResultsMean cost differences between groups (intervention minus control) were $493 (95%CI: -3513 to 5363) for healthcare costs, $-32 (95%CI: -73 to 13) for medication costs, and $125 (95%CI: -151 to 486) for absenteeism costs. The total mean difference in societal costs was $1197 (95%CI: -2887 to 6106). For QALYs and all clinical measures of effect, the probability of the intervention being cost-effective compared with usual care was less than 0.36 at all willingness-to-pay values.ConclusionsFrom a societal perspective, telephone-based weight loss support, provided using an existing non-disease specific 6-month weight management and healthy lifestyle service was not cost-effective in comparison with usual care for overweight and obese patients with knee osteoarthritis.Trial registration numberACTRN12615000490572 , registered 18th May 2015.

Project description:BackgroundAfter-hours support from hospice providers is instrumental to patients with serious illness who choose to remain at home, particularly at end of life. Utilisation of out-of-hours support has been much characterised in terms of frequency and nature of calls, but more needs to be known to inform service customisation and resource allocation to optimise care. To this end, we stratify reasons for using the after-hours helpline according to time sensitivity, and to explore disease and person factors associated with urgent calls.MethodElectronic medical records for incoming calls from external parties outside workhours within a large home hospice in Singapore were analysed inductively, to identify patterns and associations along study objectives. Individual code books for caller type and call reasons were created and tested in vivo, and later administered to extracted data. Patients that accessed the helpline were tracked for different outcomes, including hospital admissions and on-call home visits. Logistic regression modelling was performed to categorise call reasons by urgency and to identify disease and person factors associated with time sensitive calls.ResultsMore than 5,000 calls to the helpline were made over a two-year period (2019-2020), predominantly by family caregivers (88.4%). These were in relation to 2,303 unique patients (38.9% of total patients served). After-hours calls were made an average of 2.3 times by patients across various lengths of service. Only 11.9% of calls were deemed time sensitive or urgent, requiring home visits by on-call staff (4%) or resulting in admission to hospital (7.9%). The majority were managed by primary care teams on the next workday (65.1%) and the remainder sorted during the after-hours call itself (22.3%). Call reasons or presenting issues were classified into two groups according to urgency. Calls in the year 2020, from the younger patient, preferred place of death outside the home, and caller types other than patient or healthcare worker were significantly associated with urgent calls.ConclusionDeeper characterisation of after-hours calls offers possibilities: service redesign for optimal resourcing and customised training for better care. Ultimately, planners, providers, and patients all stand to benefit.

Project description:ObjectiveTo assess the feasibility of implementing a dedicated feeding support team on a postnatal ward and pilot the potential effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of team (proactive) and woman-initiated (reactive) telephone support after discharge.DesignRandomised controlled trial embedded within a before-and-after study. Participatory approach and mixed-method process evaluation.SettingA postnatal ward in Scotland.SampleWomen living in disadvantaged areas initiating breast feeding.MethodsEligible women were recruited to a before-and-after intervention study, a proportion of whom were independently randomised after hospital discharge to intervention: daily proactive and reactive telephone calls for ≤14 days or control: reactive telephone calls ≤ day 14. Intention-to-treat analysis compared the randomised groups on cases with complete outcomes at follow-up.Main outcome measuresPrimary outcomeany breast feeding at 6-8 weeks assessed by a telephone call from a researcher blind to group allocation.Secondary outcomesexclusive breast feeding, satisfaction with care, NHS costs and cost per additional woman breast feeding.ResultsThere was no difference in feeding outcomes for women initiating breast feeding before the intervention (n=413) and after (n=388). 69 women were randomised to telephone support: 35 intervention (32 complete cases) and 34 control (26 complete cases). 22 intervention women compared with 12 control women were giving their baby some breast milk (RR 1.49, 95% CI 0.92 to 2.40) and 17 intervention women compared with eight control women were exclusively breast feeding (RR 1.73, 95% CI 0.88 to 3.37) at 6-8 weeks after birth. The incremental cost of providing proactive calls was £87 per additional woman breast feeding and £91 per additional woman exclusively breast feeding at 6-8 weeks; costs were sensitive to service organisation.ConclusionsProactive telephone care delivered by a dedicated feeding team shows promise as a cost-effective intervention for improving breastfeeding outcomes. Integrating the FEeding Support Team (FEST) intervention into routine postnatal care was feasible.Trial registration numberISRCTN27207603. The study protocol and final report are available on request.

Dataset Information

Comparison of effects between home visits with telephone calls and telephone calls only for transitional discharge support: a randomised controlled trial.

Background

Objective

Design

Setting

Participants

Intervention

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Comparison of effects between home visits with telephone calls and telephone calls only for transitional discharge support: a randomised controlled trial.

Similar Datasets

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