Overview
Hospital discharge is a dangerous time for patients: one in five will suffer an adverse event, such as a medication error, and nearly 25% will be readmitted within 30 days. This time is even more dangerous for patients with who face communication barriers, including those with non-English language preference (NELP), low health literacy, and the elderly.
The investigators will pilot a post-discharge educational intervention to reinforce written discharge instructions (known as the After Visit Summary or AVS) using a randomized controlled trial design (2:1 intervention: control). The control group will receive current standard of care discharge education which includes a nurse reviewing their AVS and an automated call in English that allows patients to numerically select types of problems/questions that are then escalated to a nurse who should return their call within a few days. The intervention group will receive the standard of care discharge education with the AVS and an additional post-discharge educational call delivered by a registered nurse or other qualified health professional with the option to have written instructions professionally translated and sent via MyChart message--if available in their preferred language.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria:
- Registered language in Epic (written or spoken) is Spanish, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Cape Verdean, or Vietnamese
- Admitted to medicine team at Boston Medical Center (BMC)
- Being discharged home (to the community)
Exclusion Criteria:
- On airborne infections precautions at time of recruitment
- On C diff precautions at time of recruitment
- On suicide precautions at time of recruitment
- Nurse report of participant displaying cognitive impairment, ongoing delirium, or aggression
- Discharge observed during a prior admission