72-hour Return Quality Improvement (qi) Initiative: Improving the Discharge Process to Decrease Unexpected Returns

Abstract

Purpose: Unscheduled return visits within 72 hours of discharge account for 4% of pediatric emergency department (ED) visits each year. As many of these visits are considered preventable, 72-hour returns are often used as a quality indicator for ED effectiveness. Objective: To reduce the 72-Hour unexpected return visit rate for a network of ED and Urgent Cares (UC) by improving the ED discharge …