Inpatient to outpatient transfer of diabetes care: perceptions of barriers to postdischarge followup in urban African American patients.

Objectives: To determine potential obstacles to postdischarge followup of hospitalized diabetes patients and to inform planning to better ensure continuity of service when care is transferred from inpatient to outpatient settings.

Design: Surveys of hospital inpatients.

Setting: Urban hospital

Patients: Inpatients with diabetes mellitus.

Inpatient to outpatient transfer of care in urban patients with diabetes: patterns and determinants of immediate postdischarge follow-up.

Background: A key opportunity for continuing diabetes care is to assure outpatient follow-up after hospitalization. To delineate patterns and factors associated with having an ambulatory care visit, we examined immediate postdischarge follow-up among a cohort of urban, hospitalized patients with diabetes mellitus.

Methods: Retrospective study of 658 inpatients of a municipal hospital.