Professor & Chair Emory University SOM Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Research Objectives: To investigate if adding a consult service would increase clinic follow up and improve patient outcomes
Design: A retrospective review over 7 years
Setting: Acute Care Hospital and Clinic
Participants: 30,705 Inpatients & Outpatients
Interventions: Developing a consult service for referring patients to the PM&R Clinic, including therapy
Main Outcome Measures: Baseline demographics, Percentage of referrals/follow-up appointments
Results: In a 5-year retrospective review, we found that 78% of stroke discharges were not seen in an appropriate follow-up clinic. After the intervention, the consult service was able to increase the number of follow-ups to the physician and therapy clinics.
Conclusions: The data demonstrate an earlier intervention to schedule patients for follow-up increases the likeliness of the patient being seen by an appropriate provider.
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