Assessing outpatient follow-up care compliance, complications, and sequelae in children hospitalized for isolated traumatic abdominal injuries
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In brief
In brief
Retrospective study of 61 pediatric patients with isolated abdominal trauma using regional health information exchange data to track two-year follow-up compliance and outcomes. Found 78.7% compliance with recommended follow-up, with 4.9% developing complications and 9.8% experiencing sequelae, demonstrating the utility of health information exchanges for trauma outcome surveillance.
Written by the GCMD Library team from the article.
Background
Currently there is limited knowledge on compliance with follow-up care in pediatric patients after abdominal trauma. The Indiana Network for Patient Care (INPC) is a large regional health information exchange with both structured clinical data (e.g., diagnosis codes) and unstructured data (e.g., provider notes). The objective of this study is to determine if regional health information exchanges can be used to evaluate whether patients receive all follow-up care recommended by providers.
Methods
We identified 61 patients treated at a Pediatric Level I Trauma Center who were admitted for isolated abdominal injuries. We analyzed medical records for two years following initial hospital discharge for injury using the INPC. The encounters were classified by the type of encounter: outpatient, emergency department, unplanned readmission, surgery, imaging studies, and inpatient admission; then further categorized into injury- and non-injury-related care, based on provider notes. We determined compliance with follow-up care instructions given at discharge and subsequent outpatient visits, as well as the prevalence of complications and sequelae.
Results
After reviewing patient records, we found that 78.7% of patients received all recommended follow-up care, 6.6% received partial follow-up care, and 11.5% did not receive follow-up care. We found that 4.9% of patients developed complications after abdominal trauma and 9.8% developed sequelae in the two years following their initial hospitalization.
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that health information exchanges such as the INPC are useful in evaluation of follow-up care compliance and prevalence of complications/sequelae after abdominal trauma in pediatric patients.
Level of evidence
Level IV.