Table 5, Review protocol: post discharge early follow up clinics - Emergency and acute medical care in over 16s: service delivery and organisation

Review question	Do post discharge early follow up clinics optimise outcomes for patients with a suspected or confirmed acute medical emergency?
Guideline condition and its definition	Acute medical emergencies.
Review population	Adults and young people (16 years and over) with a suspected or confirmed AME.
	Adults.
	Line of therapy not an inclusion criterion.
Interventions and comparators: generic/class; specific/drug (All interventions will be compared with each other, unless otherwise stated)	Attendance at a post discharge follow up clinic; including attending a post critical/critical illness clinic. Attendance at a post discharge follow up clinic; post discharge clinic. Attendance at a post discharge follow up clinic; early follow up clinic. No post discharge or early follow up clinic; as defined by study.
Outcomes	- Quality of life (Continuous) CRITICAL - Mortality (Dichotomous) CRITICAL - Avoidable adverse effects (Dichotomous) CRITICAL - Readmission up to 30 days (Dichotomous) IMPORTANT - Patient and/or carer satisfaction (Dichotomous) CRITICAL - Return to work (Dichotomous) CRITICAL - ED Attendance (Dichotomous) CRITICAL - Carer satisfaction/burden (Dichotomous) IMPORTANT
Study design	Systematic reviews (SRs) of RCTs, RCTs, observational studies only to be included if no relevant SRs or RCTs are identified.
Unit of randomisation	Patient. Hospital. Ward.
Crossover study	Not permitted.
Minimum duration of study	Not defined.
Other exclusions	Community rehabilitation. Hospital at home. Community matron. Home visits.
Subgroup analyses if there is heterogeneity	- Frail Elderly (frail elderly; no frail elderly); different outcomes for frail. - Critical illness (critically ill; not critically ill); different outcome for critically ill patients. - Clinic within 7 days of discharge (within 7 days; not within 7 days); different outcome for clinic within 7 days. - Clinic within 28 days of discharge (within 28 days; not within 28 days); different outcome for clinic within 28 days.
Search criteria	Databases: Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Library. Date limits for search: None. Language: English.

Review question

Do post discharge early follow up clinics optimise outcomes for patients with a suspected or confirmed acute medical emergency?

Guideline condition and its definition

Acute medical emergencies.

Review population

Adults and young people (16 years and over) with a suspected or confirmed AME.

Adults.

Line of therapy not an inclusion criterion.

Interventions and comparators: generic/class; specific/drug

(All interventions will be compared with each other, unless otherwise stated)

Attendance at a post discharge follow up clinic; including attending a post critical/critical illness clinic.

Attendance at a post discharge follow up clinic; post discharge clinic.

Attendance at a post discharge follow up clinic; early follow up clinic.

No post discharge or early follow up clinic; as defined by study.

Outcomes

-: Quality of life (Continuous) CRITICAL
-: Mortality (Dichotomous) CRITICAL
-: Avoidable adverse effects (Dichotomous) CRITICAL
-: Readmission up to 30 days (Dichotomous) IMPORTANT
-: Patient and/or carer satisfaction (Dichotomous) CRITICAL
-: Return to work (Dichotomous) CRITICAL
-: ED Attendance (Dichotomous) CRITICAL
-: Carer satisfaction/burden (Dichotomous) IMPORTANT

Study design

Systematic reviews (SRs) of RCTs, RCTs, observational studies only to be included if no relevant SRs or RCTs are identified.

Unit of randomisation

Patient.

Hospital.

Ward.

Crossover study

Not permitted.

Minimum duration of study

Not defined.

Other exclusions

Community rehabilitation.

Hospital at home.

Community matron.

Home visits.

Subgroup analyses if there is heterogeneity

-: Frail Elderly (frail elderly; no frail elderly); different outcomes for frail.
-: Critical illness (critically ill; not critically ill); different outcome for critically ill patients.
-: Clinic within 7 days of discharge (within 7 days; not within 7 days); different outcome for clinic within 7 days.
-: Clinic within 28 days of discharge (within 28 days; not within 28 days); different outcome for clinic within 28 days.

Search criteria

Databases: Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Library.

Date limits for search: None.

Language: English.

From: Chapter 37, Post-discharge early follow-up clinics

Emergency and acute medical care in over 16s: service delivery and organisation.

NICE Guideline, No. 94.

National Guideline Centre (UK).

London: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE); 2018 Mar.

NCBI Bookshelf. A service of the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.

Table 5Review protocol: post discharge early follow up clinics