72 Hour Returns

Much has been written about ED recidivism. Ryan Radecki at EM Lit of Note has just reviewed another article about returns, this one looking at bounce backs from inpatient services as well. His conclusion is that 72 hours returns should not be used as a quality measure for ED metrics. His complaint is the nonspecific analysis of these returns. When we discuss 72 returns in our didactics, we attempt to focus on the cases from which we can learn how to prevent discharge of inappropriate patients. We are discussing shifting more toward discussing less cases with well defined take home points as we enhance didactics. Take a look at the Radecki commentary and if interested, the growing body of literature. If anyone is especially interested, a solid admin project / scholarly project would be to analyze our 72 returns over a longer period than a month. Drs Coleman and Platt presented a poster at CORD when we presented the Room9ER poster years ago.

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