Does compliance with postdischarge referral lengthen survival in the community?

Abstract

Objective:To verify whether most compliant patients with outpatient postdischarge follow-up plan remain in the community longer before readmission than those who don't adhere to outpatient follow-up plan.Methods:From a total of 120 consecutive admissions to a psychiatric general ward, 63 patients were consecutively readmitted along a 2 year period after their reference first admission.Out of the 63 patients, 25 patients were attended in an Outpatient Unit (OU) previously to their re-admission (group A), whereas 38 patients had not been attended in the OU between reference admission and readmission (group B). Patient's socio-demographic data (age, gender, marital status, and years of education) were obtained and a case-mix scale (Severity Psychiatric Illness Scale) was administered. Length of survival in community of both groups was compared by means of Analysis of Covariance, controlled for gender, age, diagnosis, clinical severity and number of previous admissions.Results:Group A had a mean length of survival in the community of 47.7 days (SD=44.3). Group B had a mean length of survival in the community of 23.2 days (SD=37.9). This difference was statistically significant (F=4.74, df=6, 63, p=0.034).Conclusions:Being attended by OU after the discharge of reference admission lengthen significantly survival in the community after controlling for gender, age, diagnosis, clinical severity and number of previous admissions. Further research will be conducted to determine the cause of the observed differences in patient attendance to post-discharge appointments.