The Impact of a Standardized Discharge Process on 30-Day Readmissions for Patients on Outpatient Parenteral...

Area of Science:

• Infectious Diseases
• Health Services Research
• Patient Care Management

Background:

• Outpatient parenteral antibiotic treatment (OPAT) offers benefits like shorter hospital stays and reduced costs.
• However, OPAT patients face risks of hospital readmission due to adverse events and complications.
• Previous studies assessed multidisciplinary approaches, but the impact of integrated technology for OPAT readmissions remains unevaluated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary approach, incorporating automated voice calls, in reducing 30-day hospital readmissions among OPAT patients.

Main Methods:

• A post-discharge transitional care process (PDTCP) was implemented, involving automated telephone patient engagement and interdisciplinary coordination (pharmacy, nursing, medicine, social work).
• OPAT patients received automated calls at specific intervals (2, 9, 16, 28, 40 days) post-discharge.
• The calls aimed to ensure medication availability, adherence, and proactively address issues that could lead to emergency room visits or readmissions.

Main Results:

• Automated calls were made to 148 patients; 61% were successfully reached.
• Patients reached by the automated system showed a significantly lower readmission rate (18.9%) compared to those not reached (41.4%).
• The relative risk of readmission for reached patients was 0.46 (95% CI 0.27-0.77, P=.003).

Conclusions:

• A multidisciplinary approach integrating automated telephone calls is effective in reducing hospital readmissions for OPAT patients.
• This technology-assisted care model shows promise for improving patient outcomes and potentially reducing healthcare utilization.
• Further research can explore optimizing automated engagement strategies within transitional care for OPAT populations.