Readmission Prevention Effort Focuses on Colon Surgery Patients

The final agreement, after five rounds of discussions among panel experts,  was as follows:

Patients should call their physician if they experience:

• Wound drainage
• Wound opening
• Wound redness or changes in the appearance of the surrounding skin or around the ostomy
• No bowel movement or lack of gas/stool from the rectum for more than 24 hours
• Increased abdominal pain
• Vomiting
• Abdominal swelling
• High ostomy output and or dark urine or no urine
• Fever greater than 101.5
• Patient is not able to take anything by mouth for more than 24 hours.

Patients should go to the emergency room if they

• Have shortness of breath or are unable to breathe
• Have chest pain

The authors said they see this list as "a starting point in the process of developing a more sophisticated decision-making tool, ultimately to be included in the patient-centered discharge plan."