Table 2.
Distribution of patient characteristics from the non-randomised pretrial observational study of the phone call programme and readmission rates
| Not called (n=16 096) | Called but not reached (n=10 749) |
Called and reached (n=8447) | |
| Any readmission within 30 days* | 15.1 (2425) | 7.4 (171) | 8.8 (747) |
| Unplanned readmission within 30 days* | 13.3 (2133) | 6.9 (158) | 8.5 (719) |
| Gender (male)* | 48.1 (7742) | 41.7 (960) | 46.5 (3932) |
| Race* | |||
| White | 79.0 (12 711) | 77.5 (1785) | 80.5 (6801) |
| Black | 15.9 (2561) | 14.9 (342) | 14.1 (1192) |
| Other | 1.7 (280) | 1.9 (44) | 1.7 (142) |
| Unknown | 3.4 (544) | 5.7 (131) | 3.7 (312) |
| Age† | 50.8 (19.5) | 45.9 (18.5) | 52.6 (182) |
| Hospital length of stay | 5.8 (7) | 4.2 (4.7) | 4.2 (4.6) |
| Case Mix Index‡ | 2.0 (2.3) | 1.9 (2.0) | 2.2 (2.3) |
| Transferred from another hospital* | 18.7 (3017) | 21.1 (485) | 17.4 (1470) |
| Admission from the emergency department* | 66.8 (10 756) | 59.3 (1366) | 44.4 (3752) |
Bold value indicates values with notable differences when compared to the other groups.
*Percentage and number of patients.
†Mean and SD.
‡Case Mix Index is a complex measure of patient illness level and the intensity of services received during a hospital stay.