Outpatient care in emergency departments: feasibility and comparison of three strategies for follow-up.

The outpatient population using the emergency department (ED) is increasing and so is the risk of not admitting people who need it. There is, thus, one important question: are the services delivered appropriate to the needs of these ED outpatients? Follow-up of non-admitted patients after a visit to the ED is a prerequisite for the evaluation of these health services. A multicentric follow-up study was thus performed in order to assess the possibility of contacting outpatients after a visit to the ED. Three randomized follow-up methods were compared: (1) telephone call 1 week after the emergency department visit; (2) telephone call 2 weeks after the visit; (3) telephone call 4 weeks after the visit. The follow-up rate did not change depending on whether patients were contacted at 1, 2 or 4 weeks after the visit. The success rate was 78.6%, 85.6% and 74% respectively (NS). In each strategy, 50% of patients were contacted at the first telephone call, 20% at the second telephone call and 10% by mail. Thus, in a group of outpatients who gave their consent to be called, the follow-up was found to be feasible with a high success rate whatever the time between the visit and the phone recall.