Examining the Effectiveness and Implementation of the Emergency Department Patient-Activated Transition to Care At Home Tool

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

ED-PATCH: Participants will access ED-PATCH using their personal mobile device and use it to track important information throughout their visit. The summary will be checked by a healthcare provider and corrected, if necessary, before being locked and sent to the patient or caregiver to keep for their own records.

Study summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to examine the effectiveness and implementation of the Emergency Department Patient-Activated Transition to Care at Home (ED-PATCH) tool, which is used by patients to manage information during their visit to the emergency department. The main aims of the trial are:

* To study whether ED-PATCH works well in Canadian emergency department settings
* To understand the context and strategies impacting the implementation of ED-PATCH in Canadian emergency department settings

ED-PATCH is an electronic tool accessed using a smartphone or tablet that patients and caregivers can use to create their own summary of what happened during their visit to the emergency department. Using a questionnaire format, the tool prompts users to enter information about their symptoms, tests and procedures done during the visit, diagnosis, medications given, and their plans after leaving the emergency department. A healthcare provider checks that the information is correct before the summary is locked and emailed to the patient.

Researchers will compare data collected before ED-PATCH is launched and after it is launched to learn if the tool reduces return visits to the emergency department and other outcomes such as participants' stress, memory and understanding of their visit, health status, and care experiences.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Monthly Rate of ED and Hospital Readmissions — 7 days post-index visit
  Monthly rate of emergency department and hospital readmissions (composite) at 7 days post-index visit, per every 100 visits, assessed of all available visits at each site.

Trial sites (2)

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