Impact of early telemedicine follow-up on 30-Day hospital readmissions

Telemedicine is increasing in popularity but the impact of this shift on patient outcomes has not been well described. Prior data has shown that early post-discharge office visits can reduce readmissions. However, it is unknown if routine use of telemedicine visits for this purpose is similarly bene...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one Vol. 18; no. 5; p. e0282081
Main Authors: Grauer, Anne, Cornelius, Talea, Abdalla, Marwah, Moise, Nathalie, Kronish, Ian M., Ye, Siqin
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Public Library of Science 22.05.2023
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:
Aftercare
Ambulatory care
Ambulatory medical care
Binomial distribution
Cardiology
Clinics
Comorbidity
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Electronic health records
Electronic medical records
Ethnicity
Evaluation
Follow-Up Studies
Health care
Health care access
Heart failure
Hispanic Americans
Hospital patients
Hospitalization
Hospitals
Humans
Medical care
Medical records
Medicine and Health Sciences
Minority & ethnic groups
Observational studies
Pandemics
Patient Discharge
Patient Readmission
Patient satisfaction
Primary care
Quality management
Reconciliation
Retrospective Studies
Social Sciences
Telemedicine
United States
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
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Summary:Telemedicine is increasing in popularity but the impact of this shift on patient outcomes has not been well described. Prior data has shown that early post-discharge office visits can reduce readmissions. However, it is unknown if routine use of telemedicine visits for this purpose is similarly beneficial. We conducted a retrospective observational study using electronic health records data to assess if the rate of 30-day hospital readmissions differed between modality of visit for primary care or cardiology post-discharge follow-up visits. Compared to discharges with completed in-person follow-up visits, the adjusted odds of readmission for those with telemedicine follow-up visits was not significantly different (odds ratio [OR] 0.96, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.61 to 1.51, P = 0.86). Our study showed that 30-day readmission rate did not differ significantly according to the modality of visit. These results provide reassurance that telemedicine visits are a safe and viable alternative for primary care or cardiology post-hospitalization follow-up.
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Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0282081