This Article  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

John H. Wasson, MD; Arthur E. Sauvigne, MD; R. Peter Mogielnicki, MD; Walter G. Frey III, MD
Veterans Administration Medical and Regional Office Center White River Junction, Vt

JAMA. 1985;253(14):2042-2043.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

In Reply.—

We share the curiosity expressed by Drs Flynn and Kiel about how provider continuity accounts for significant differences in duration of hospitalization in our study. However, we do not share their concern that the finding was an artifact caused by some unrecognized difference in the two large groups of prospectively randomized patients that made up our study population. Table 2, which demonstrated comparability of patients prior to the analysis period of the study, was shortened prior to publication. An appended Table 2 is published in this letter. In a separate manuscript, currently in preparation, we demonstrate that broad descriptions that profile patient health status forecast subsequent use of service better than disease diagnoses. Table 2 demonstrated that health status measures, as well as diagnoses, were comparable in both groups prior to the analysis period of the study. . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?