***TASK*** the task is to summarize an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***INPUT*** the input is a biomedical literature 
    ***OUTPUT*** the output is the summary of an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***DOCUMENTATION*** 
    ***EXAMPLES*** 
    Input: Importance The transition from hospital to home can expose patients to adverse events during the post discharge period . Post discharge care including phone calls may provide support for patients returning home but the impact on care transitions is unknown . Objective To examine the effect of a 72-hour post discharge phone call on the patient 's transition of care experience . Design Cluster-r and omized control trial . Setting Urban , academic medical center . Participants General medical patients age 18 and older discharged home after hospitalization . Main Outcomes and Measures Primary outcome measure was the Care Transition Measure ( CTM-3 ) score , a vali date d measure of the quality of care transitions . Secondary measures included self-reported adherence to medication and follow up plans , and 30-day composite of emergency department ( ED ) visits and hospital readmission . Results 328 patients were included in the study over an 6-month period . 114 ( 69 % ) received a post  discharge phone call , and 214 of all patients in the study completed the follow outcome survey ( 65 % response rate ) . A small difference in CTM-3 scores was observed between the intervention and control groups ( 1.87 points , 95 % CI 0.47–3.27 , p = 0.01 ) . Self-reported adherence to treatment plans , ED visits , and emergency readmission rates were similar between the two groups ( odds ratio 0.57 , 95 % CI 0.13–2.45 , 1.20 , 95 % CI 0.61–2.37 , and 1.18 , 95 % CI 0.53–2.61 , respectively ) . Conclusions and Relevance A single post discharge phone call had a small impact on the quality of care transitions and no effect on hospital utilization . Higher intensity post discharge support may be required to improve the patient experience upon returning home . Trial Registration Clinical Trials.gov OBJECTIVES To determine if a community pharmacy-based transition of care ( TOC ) program that included the full scope of medication therapy management ( MTM ) services ( TransitionRx ) decreased hospital readmissions , resolved medication-related problems , and increased patient satisfaction . DESIGN Prospect i ve , quasi-experimental study . SETTING Nine Kroger Pharmacies located in Western Cincinnati . PATIENTS Patients older than 18 years of age and discharged from two local hospitals with a diagnosis of congestive heart failure , chronic obstructive pulmonary disease , or pneumonia . Patients were recruited from two local hospitals and referred to the community pharmacy for MTM services with the pharmacist within 1 week of discharge . MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Pharmacists reconciled the patients ' medications , identified drug therapy problems , recommended changes to therapy , and provided self-management education . At 30 days after discharge , research personnel conducted telephone surveys , using a previously vali date d survey instrument , to assess hospital readmissions and patient satisfaction . Pharmacist interventions and medication-related problems were documented . RESULTS A total of 90 patients completed the study . Of these , 20 % of patients in the usual care group were admitted to the hospital within 30 days compared with 6.9 % of patients in the intervention group ( P = 0.019 ) . In the 30 patients who received MTM services from the pharmacist , 210 interventions were made . The overall mean patient satisfaction with the TOC process was not significantly different between patients who were seen by the pharmacist and those who were not seen by the pharmacist . CONCLUSION Community pharmacies successfully collaborated with hospitals to develop a referral process for TOC interventions . Patients who received MTM services from the pharmacist experienced significantly fewer readmissions than patients who received usual care ABSTRACT BACKGROUND  Rehospitalizations within 30 days of discharge are responsible for a large portion of healthcare spending . One approach to preventing rehospitalizations is early follow-up , usually defined as an office visit with a primary care physician within 7 days of discharge — an approach that is being incentivized by health plans . However , evidence regarding its effectiveness is limited . OBJECTIVE We aim ed to determine whether an office visit with a primary care physician within 7 days after discharge is associated with 30-day rehospitalization . DESIGN This was an observational study set within a r and omized trial . PARTICIPANTS The study included patients age 65 and older receiving care from a multi-specialty group practice and discharged from hospital to home between 26 August 2010 and 25 August 2011 . To control for confounding , we identified characteristics of patients and hospital stays that are predictive of rehospitalization , and also developed high-dimensional propensity scores . Analyses used Cox proportional hazards models and took into account varying amounts of opportunity time for office visits . MAIN MEASURES We looked at 30-day rehospitalizations at any hospital . KEY RESULTS Of 3,661 patients discharged to home during the study year , 707 ( 19.3 % ) were rehospitalized within 30 days . Patients receiving an office visit  within 7 days numbered 1,808 ( 49.4 % ) , and of these , 1,000 ( 27.3 % ) were with a primary care physician . In models predicting rehospitalization , stratified on deciles of propensity score and controlling for additional confounders , the hazard ratios associated with office visits with a primary care physician within 7 days were 0.98 ( 95 % CI 0.80 , 1.21 ) ; for visits with any physician , the hazard ratio was HR 1.04 , ( 95 % CI 0.87 , 1.25 ) . CONCLUSIONS We found no protective effect for office visits within 7 days . Such visits may need to be specifically focused on a range of issues related to the specific reasons why patients are rehospitalized . It is likely that outpatient visits will need to be set within comprehensive transition programs Non-r and omised studies of the effects of interventions are critical to many areas of healthcare evaluation , but their results may be biased . It is therefore important to underst and and appraise their strengths and weaknesses . We developed ROBINS-I ( “ Risk Of Bias In Non-r and omised Studies - of Interventions ” ) , a new tool for evaluating risk of bias in estimates of the comparative effectiveness ( harm or benefit ) of interventions from studies that did not use r and omisation  to allocate units ( individuals or clusters of individuals ) to comparison groups . The tool will be particularly useful to those undertaking systematic review s that include non-r and omised studies AIM This paper reports a study to determine whether a nurse-initiated telephone follow-up programme could increase  patients ' self-efficacy  in managing dyspnoea and decrease health care service use . BACKGROUND Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a worldwide health problem and has been labelled a burdensome disease . Because of the fear of activity-induced dyspnoea , patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease lack the confidence to perform daily activities . Studies of cardiac and diabetic patients have shown that telephone follow-up care is an effective approach to increasing self-efficacy . However , little such research has been done with patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease . METHODS This was a r and omized controlled study . A total of 60 participants ( 30 telephone follow-up , 30 control ) with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were recruited from an acute care hospital in Hong Kong . The Chinese Self-Efficacy Scale was used to assess self-efficacy . Measures of health care use were numbers of visits to an accident and emergency department , hospitalizations , and unscheduled visits by physicians . FINDINGS The self-efficacy scores ( U = 272.5 , P = 0.009 ) of patients who were followed up by telephone improved significantly compared with those of patients in the control group . Multiple regression analyses showed that telephone follow-up ( Beta = 0.33 , CI : 0.19 - 0.48 , P = 0.001 ) , the pulmonary rehabilitation programme ( Beta = 0.44 , CI : 0.16 - 0.72 , P = 0.003 ) , smoking ( Beta = 0.34 , CI : 0.09 - 0.57 , P = 0.009 ) , and health care use ( Beta = -0.27 , CI : -0.47-(-0.07 ) , P = 0.008 ) were significant factors in predicting patient self-efficacy . CONCLUSIONS Nurse-initiated telephone follow-up care was effective in increasing self-efficacy in managing dyspnoea . The study needs to be replicated in other setting to strengthen its external validity BACKGROUND Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD ) exacerbation increases mortality and re sources used associated with hospitalization . We studied whether early home monitoring reduces the rate of readmission and if there are any predictor variables . PATIENTS AND METHODS We performed a prospect i ve , controlled , parallel-group study in patients who were hospitalized for COPD . Patients whose residence was within less than 15 km from the hospital were assigned to an interventional group ( home visits by nurses about 48 - 72hours after discharge ) , the remainder were assigned to a conventional care group . The rate of rehospitalization within the first month was compared between the two groups , as well as those variables that showed a predictive capability . RESULTS Seventy one patients were included : 35 in the conventional care group and 36 in the interventional group . In the latter , the treatment was modified in 13 patients ( 36 % ) . The hospital readmission rate was 17 % , which was similar in both groups ( P=.50 ) . For every 5-year increase in age , the risk for readmission was 2.54 ( 95%CI , 1.06 - 5.07 ) and for each increase of 10mmHg in PaCO(2 ) , the risk of readmission was 8.34 ( 95%CI , 2.43 - 18.55 ) . CONCLUSIONS Early home monitoring did not decrease the readmission rate during the first month . Older age and high PaCO(2 ) are factors that identify the group with a high risk for rehospitalization 
    Output:
    
We did not find a difference in effectiveness between studies using a 7-day versus a 30-day follow-up .
Based on low- and very low- quality evidence , follow-up within 7 days and within 30 days of discharge from hospitalization for heart failure or COPD -compared with usual care or no follow-up-were both associated with a reduced risk of all-cause readmission , emergency department visits , and mortality .
Overall , there is a lack of large , method ologically robust studies specifically focusing on the effectiveness of 7-day follow-up after discharge in improving patient outcomes