Showing papers by "Lee Goldman published in 2003"

The Follow-up Service: Easing the Transition from the Inpatient to the Outpatient Setting

Abstract: • Objective: To evaluate a follow-up service (FUS) designed to provide care to patients during the transition from the inpatient to the outpatient setting. • Design: Prospective cohort study. • Setting: Academic medical center. • Participants: Patients discharged from the general medical service for whom a FUS visit was arranged by the inpatient team. Patients were judged to be appropriate for a FUS visit if they had a medical problem that required timely follow-up and met at least 1 of the following criteria: had a medical problem that was best evaluated by the inpatient physicians, could not see the outpatient physician soon enough, or lacked a primary care physician. • Measurements: Patient demographic information, discharge diagnoses, content of the FUS visit, return visits to the emergency department or readmission to the hospital within 14 days of the FUS visit, FUS visit duration, and patient and provider attitudes and satisfaction with the service. • Results: 1.8% (47/2640) of patients discharged from the general medical service had FUS visits. On aver