Bostrom 1996.

Methods	DETAILS OF STUDY AIM OF INTERVENTION: The telephone nursing care link project was designed to provide discharged patients with a means for continuing the health education that was begun by nursing staff during their hospitalisation. AIM OF STUDY: To assess differences in patient satisfaction with the meeting of their healthcare education needs among the patients who received a telephone call after discharge, those who are given the opportunity to call and those who receive no additional telephone follow‐up and to assess differences in readmissions within 30 days of discharge between the three groups. STUDY DESIGN: CCT. METHODS OF RECRUITMENT OF PARTICIPANTS: Patients from 5 units were eligible during a 3 month period; using a counterbalanced method patients were allocated to one of three groups. INCLUSION CRITERIA FOR PARTICIPATION IN STUDY: being discharged home from one of five participating units (general surgery, neurosurgery, orthopedic, general medicine, urology)/ English speaking. EXCLUSION CRITERIA FOR PARTICIPATION IN STUDY: not specified. INFORMED CONSENT OBTAINED? unclear. ETHICAL APPROVAL? unclear. FUNDING: unclear. ASSESSMENT OF STUDY QUALITY ALLOCATION CONCEALMENT: unclear. EPOC‐ QUALITY CRITERIA 2002: C.high risk of bias. METHOD OF GENERATING RANDOMISATION SCHEDULE: alternating scheme by time period and nursing unit. METHOD OF CONCEALMENT OF ALLOCATION: not specified. BLINDING: ·PARTICIPANTS: no. ·PROVIDER/S: no. ·OUTCOME ASSESSOR/S: no. INTENTION TO TREAT ANALYSIS: not stated. BASELINE COMPARABILITY OF INTERVENTION AND CONTROL GROUPS: no. STATISTICAL METHODS AND THEIR APPROPRIATENESS: anova/chi‐square. CONSUMER INVOLVEMENT: not stated.
Participants	DESCRIPTION: mixed specialties. GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION: USA. SETTING: discharged home from an acute care setting. NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: ELIGIBLE: 1413, RANDOMISED TO INTERVENTION: 445, RANDOMISED TO CONTROL: 183 ‐ 474, INCLUDED IN ANALYSIS INTERVENTION GROUP: 165, INCLUDED IN ANALYSIS CONTROL GROUP: 183 ‐ 474, AGE: RANGE OR MEAN (SD): GENDER (% MALE): ETHNICITY: PRINCIPAL HEALTH PROBLEM OR DIAGNOSIS: unclear. OTHER HEALTH PROBLEM/S: unclear. TREATMENT RECEIVED/RECEIVING: unclear. OTHER SOCIAL/DEMOGRAPHIC DETAILS: not given.
Interventions	DETAILS OF INTERVENTION: The nurse contacted the patient 2 to 3 days after discharge. Additional calls were made as needed. DETAILS OF CONTROL: Two control groups: one received usual care and the other were given a brochure at discharge that described the project and contained information on how to contact the nurse specialist, the hours of operation and a description of the types of questions that were appropriate for this service. CO‐INTERVENTION? no. DETAILS OF CO‐INTERVENTIONS: usual care. DELIVERY OF INTERVENTION Frequency: mostly 2 to 3 calls. First time at day 1 after discharge. Period: PROVIDERS: nurse. INTERVENTION QUALITY: unclear how much additional phone calls were made. FIDELITY/INTEGRITY: unclear.
Outcomes	NUMBER OF OUTCOMES: 2. OUTCOME / TOOL / TOOL VALIDATED / METHOD OF ASSESSMENT / TIME OF ASSESSMENT A.Psycho‐social health of patients (uncertainty, anxiety, informational needs, mood, coping, quality of life, social activity, ..): satisfaction / self‐developed / partly, adaptation of the Patient Learning Need Scale (Bubela, 1990) / questionnaire / 4 weeks after discharge. B.Physical health of patients (eg. functional status, self‐care, self‐efficacy, independence, ..): C.Other consumer oriented outcomes (eg. treatment adherence, knowledge, adverse events, ..): D. Health service delivery oriented outcomes (eg. hospital readmission, health services utilization, ..): readmission / hospital record / unclear / status analysis / 4 weeks after discharge.
Notes	·CHANGES IN TRIAL PROTOCOL ·CONTACT WITH AUTHOR ·POWER CALCULATION? ·RECORD IF THE STUDY WAS TRANSLATED FROM A LANGUAGE OTHER THAN ENGLISH. ·RECORD IF THE STUDY WAS A DUPLICATE PUBLICATION.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Allocation concealment?	Unclear risk	B ‐ Unclear