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Obtaining timely, appropriate follow-up for emergency department patients is an ongoing concern. Ideally, every ED should have a secure system to transmit information to primary care physicians (PCPs). Researchers in Quebec, where there is universal health insurance, assessed the effect of a standardized communication system on continuity of care.
They conducted an open four-period, crossover, cluster-randomized, controlled trial at 23 family practice settings. During intervention periods, PCPs automatically received daily e-mails via a secure, Web-based, standardized communication system that provided detailed clinical information and access to test results for patients with recent ED visits. During control periods, PCPs received customary …