Follow-up phone calls and compliance with discharge instructions in elderly patients discharged from the emergency department

A short-cut review was carried out to establish whether follow-up phone calls improved compliance with follow-up and discharge instructions given to the elderly on discharge from the emergency department. 211 papers were found using the reported searches, of which 5 presented the best available evidence to answer the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these papers are tabulated. It is concluded that telephone follow-up can identify non-compliance with discharge instructions in the elderly, but there is currently no evidence to show that it actually improves it