Timeliness of Outpatient Follow-up: An Evidence-Based Approach for Planning After Hospital Discharge

This was a study of North Carolina Medicaid claims data for 44,473 Medicaid recipients representing 65,085 discharges. The authors classified each recipient by readmissions risk and examined risk strata in relation to follow-up visit data. The authors found that follow up completed within seven days significantly reduced readmissions for those with more complex clinical presentations (who were also at highest risk for readmission); these findings are relevant to the COPD population given the known readmissions risk and presence of comorbidities seen with this disease.