Adapted Hospital Discharge Intervention: the CONNECT Pilot

Purpose

Hospital discharge is a dangerous time for patients: one in five will suffer an adverse event, such as a medication error, and nearly 25% will be readmitted within 30 days. This time is even more dangerous for patients with who face communication barriers, including those with non-English language preference (NELP), low health literacy, and the elderly. The investigators will pilot a post-discharge educational intervention to reinforce written discharge instructions (known as the After Visit Summary or AVS) using a randomized controlled trial design (2:1 intervention: control). The control group will receive current standard of care discharge education which includes a nurse reviewing their AVS and an automated call in English that allows patients to numerically select types of problems/questions that are then escalated to a nurse who should return their call within a few days. The intervention group will receive the standard of care discharge education with the AVS and an additional post-discharge educational call delivered by a registered nurse or other qualified health professional with the option to have written instructions professionally translated and sent via MyChart message--if available in their preferred language.

Condition

  • Communication Research

Eligibility

Eligible Ages
Over 18 Years
Eligible Sex
All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
No

Inclusion Criteria

  • Registered language in Epic (written or spoken) is Spanish, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Cape Verdean, or Vietnamese - Admitted to medicine team at Boston Medical Center (BMC) - Being discharged home (to the community)

Exclusion Criteria

  • On airborne infections precautions at time of recruitment - On C diff precautions at time of recruitment - On suicide precautions at time of recruitment - Nurse report of participant displaying cognitive impairment, ongoing delirium, or aggression - Discharge observed during a prior admission

Study Design

Phase
N/A
Study Type
Interventional
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention Model
Parallel Assignment
Intervention Model Description
Two arm randomized controlled trial (2:1 intervention:control), Randomization stratified by language.
Primary Purpose
Health Services Research
Masking
None (Open Label)

Arm Groups

ArmDescriptionAssigned Intervention
Other
Educational intervention 		Participants randomized into this arm will receive current hospital discharge education and an additional post-discharge educational call.
  • Other: Additional post discharge phone call
    24-72 hours after hospital discharge, a nurse will call participants to review the written After Visit Summary (AVS) given at discharge, including primary diagnosis, self-care instructions, emergency plan, medication changes, how and why to take medication, and scheduled follow up. These phone calls will take on average 10-15 minutes.
No Intervention
Standard of care 		Participants randomized into this arm will receive current hospital discharge education.

Recruiting Locations

Boston Medical Center
Boston 4930956, Massachusetts 6254926 02118
Contact:
Kirsten Austad, MD PhD
617-414-2050

More Details

Status
Recruiting
Sponsor
Boston Medical Center

Study Contact

Kirsten Austad, MD MPH
617 414-2050
kirsten.austad@bmc.org