Study Setting
CHRONIC ILLNESSES, SECONDARY, RECRUITMENT
This was a secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial of the Camden Core Model. From June 2014 to September 2017, 800 hospitalized patients were randomized using a tamper-proof and externally recorded randomization device to intervention vs usual care. The primary prespecified outcome was readmission within 180 days after hospital discharge. The protocol was approved by Cooper University Healthcare, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, and written informed consent was obtained from all participants. We used the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (Patients were identified through a Health Information Exchange, and study recruitment took place at 2 hospitals in Camden, New Jersey. Eligible patients were 18 years and older with 2 or more hospitalizations in the prior 6 months with evidence of multiple chronic illnesses and social complexity in their medical records. Care staff met eligible patients at hospital bedside to invite them to participate in the study and generated the random allocation sequence. Consented patients were randomized into intervention and control arms, with 399 patients enrolled in the treatment group to receive care management services and 401 randomized into the control group to receive usual postdischarge care. The final analytic sample consisted of 782 patients (393 in the treatment group and 389 in the control group) with complete discharge information. Outcome data were collected through October 2018. The participant flow diagram is shown in 