Hospital discharge, readmissions, nudges, video visits

Project Lead: Alicea (Allie) Lieberman

Nudge Unit Team: Hengchen Dai, Craig Fox, Jana Gallus, Richard Leuchter, Will Turner

Collaborators: Yolanda Christenson, Keith Cox, Irene Davis, Erin Dowling, Eskedar Gizaw, Monique Keeles, Brian Le, Jessica Leyva, Hedieh Najafi, Jeri Robertson, Wendy Simon, J Ruth Villalobos, SMH NP Cohort, SMH 4MN Nurses and Care Partners

Collaborating Department/Division: Hospital Medicine, DOM Quality

Project Description: Unplanned hospital readmissions in the U.S. healthcare system cost over $15 billion annually. Despite evidence that post-hospitalization follow-up visits with primary care providers (PCPs) can reduce the risk of unplanned readmissions, patient completion rates remain low. We designed a prospective randomized trial aiming to increase follow-up PCP visit completion rates. Specifically, we compared the status-quo post-hospitalization scheduling workflow to the following behaviorally-informed intervention:

iPad video visit to schedule post-hospitalization follow-up prior to discharge, using a behaviorally-informed script

The primary outcome being measured is the number of post-hospitalization follow-ups completed, and unplanned 30-day readmissions are also being tracked.