Telephone follow-up by a hospital-based health professional after hospital discharge

Many patients encounter a variety of problems in the first weeks after they have been discharged from hospital to home. Telephone follow-up, initiated by hospital-based health professionals, is considered to be a good means of exchanging information, providing health education and advice, managing symptoms, recognising complications early and giving reassurance to patients after discharge. Some research has shown that telephone follow-up is feasible, and that patients appreciate such calls. However, until now it was not clear whether telephone follow-up is also effective. Our systematic review identified 33 relevant studies, almost all of which were of low methodological quality (a major limitation of the review). We found that telephone follow-up has been applied in many patient groups. There is great variety in the ways the telephone follow-up has been performed. Many different outcomes have been measured. Some studies found effects in favour of the telephone follow-up intervention, but overall studies identified no statistically significant differences between the telephone follow-up and control groups. For as far as the results of studies could be pooled together, we could draw no firm conclusions about the effects of telephone follow-up. No studies identified adverse effects of the intervention.