Recent functional decline and outpatient follow-up after hospital discharge: a cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Functional decline is common following acute hospitalization and is associated with hospital readmission, institutionalization, and mortality. People with functional decline may have difficulty accessing post-discharge medical care, even though early physician follow-up has the potential to prevent poor outcomes and is integral to high-quality transitional care. We sought to determine whether recent functional decline was associated with lower rates of post-discharge physician follow-up, and whether this association changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, given that both functional decline and COVID-19 may affect access to post-discharge care.

Method

We conducted a retrospective cohort study using health administrative data from Ontario, Canada. We included patients

SUBMITTER: Bogler O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10496187 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature