Patients' ratings of the in-hospital discharge briefing and post-discharge primary care follow-up: The association with 30-day readmissions

Objective: We examined whether patients' ratings of their in-hospital discharge briefing and their post-discharge Primary Care Physicians' (PCP) review of the discharge summary are associated with 30-day readmissions. Methods: A prospective study of 594 internal-medicine patients at a tertiary medical-center in Israel. The in-hospital baseline questionnaire included sociodemographic characteristics, physical, mental, and functional health status. Patients were surveyed by phone about the discharge and post-discharge processes. Clinical data and health-service use was retrieved from a central data-warehouse. Multivariate regressions modeled the relationship between in-hospital baseline characteristics, discharge briefing, PCP visit indicator, the PCP discharge summary review, and 30-day readmissions. Results: The extent of the PCPs' review of the hospital discharge summary at the post-discharge visit was rated higher than the in-hospital discharge briefing (3.46 vs. 3.17, p = 0.001) and was associated with lower odds of readmission (OR=0.35, 95% CI 0.26–0.45). The model that included this assessment performed better than the in-hospital baseline, the in-hospital discharge-briefing, and the PCP visit models (C-statistic = 0.87, compared with: 0.70, 0.81, 0.81, respectively). Conclusions: Providing extensive post-discharge explanations by PCPs serves as a significant protective factor against readmissions. Practice implications: PCPs should be encouraged to thoroughly review the discharge summary letter with the patient.