Compliance with post-hospitalization follow-up visits: rationing by inconvenience?
Modifiable system, as well as patient, characteristics are associated with follow-up appointment-keeping. The practice of not giving patients written appointments at the time of discharge may constitute an implicit form of "rationing by inconvenience." Further studies should also evaluate potential associations between appointment-keeping and re-hospitalization.
The number of drains used after a mastectomy for breast cancer did not significantly affect the rate or amount of seromas in this study, but the use of a single drain after mastectomy was significantly associated with less discomfort and shorter postoperative hospital stay.