The association between continuity of care and readmission to hospital in patients with severe psychosis (original) (raw)

Providing good continuity of care to patients is considered a vital component of community mental health services, but there is limited evidence that it is associated with good outcomes. We measured service use and a multidimensional concept of continuity of care in 323 patients who were to be discharged from hospital following compulsory treatment for psychosis to investigate the association between continuity and rehospitalisation. We conducted a 36-month prospective cohort study of the patients recruited to the Oxford Community Treatment Order Trial (OCTET). We collected data from medical records on eight previously operationalized measures of continuity. We conducted regression analyses to determine the association between these measures and readmission to hospital, time to readmission, and the number of days spent in hospital. Almost two thirds (n = 206, 63.8%) of patients were readmitted. Patients were seen frequently, with a mean of 2.9 (SD = 2.47) contacts a month throughout...