Clinical studyThe impact of follow-up physician visits on emergency readmissions for patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a population-based study
Section snippets
Study design and patient data
We conducted a population-based cohort study of all patients in Alberta, Canada, who were admitted to emergency rooms with asthma or COPD as their principal diagnosis. In accordance with the Canada Health Act, Alberta has a single-payer, publicly funded health care system that provides universal health care coverage to all residents. Patient encounter data were obtained from medical record registries maintained by Alberta Health and Wellness. From the physicians’ claims registry, we identified
Results
Of the 25 256 persons who were admitted to an emergency department for asthma or COPD during the study period, 2610 (10%) had a repeat emergency visit, and 7829 (31%) had at least one follow-up visit with a physician during the month following discharge from their initial emergency visit. Of the patients who had a follow-up physician visit, 6643 (85%) had a visit with a general practitioner, while 1186 (15%) had a visit with a specialist.
Table 1 shows the demographic and clinical
Discussion
We found that an early follow-up visit after an emergency encounter was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of emergency readmissions among patients with asthma and COPD. When asthma and COPD are analyzed together, office visits within the first 30 days of the initial admission to the emergency department were associated with 21% fewer readmissions during the first 90 days after discharge. In patients with asthma, follow-up visits were associated with 25% fewer emergency
Acknowledgements
We thank Thomas Marrie, MD, and Finlay McAlister, MD, for their helpful review of the manuscript.
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