Long Term Outcomes
Question: What is the best way to document LTOs for patients that are in the registry but discharged with follow up at another facility/clinic. This happens sometimes because of insurance requirements, or because a patient is being discharged with family that live closer to another burn center and follow up is arranged there. It seems odd to say, "lost to follow-up" because we have arranged for them to receive follow up elsewhere, but the other options of "follow-up continued/ongoing" and "follow-up complete" don't seem to fit either.
Answer: If you send them to another facility for follow up, then you should check "Lost to Follow Up" because the patient is no longer coming to your facility, and you are no longer doing the follow up on the patient. This is not a negative for your facility as there are many facilities that must refer patients to other facilities for follow-up because of distance and other issues.