Summary

Background:

The prognosis of long-term clinical outcomes for each patient is of utmost importance.

Objectives:

To evaluate the association between rates of family attendance during rounds and long-term outcomes.

Methods:

We conducted a historic cohort study.

Results:

We followed 200 consecutive patients for a median of 19 months. Within the group of patients that had family members present in > 75% of rounds, the 30-day re-hospitalization rate was tenfold higher (P = 0.017). The overall prognosis (including median survival length) of patients who had the highest rates of family attendance (> 75%) was significantly worse compared to patients who had lower rates (P = 0.028). High rates of family attendance were found to correlate with other established risk factors for long-term mortality, including advanced age (r = 0.231, P = 0.001) and in-hospital delirium.

Conclusions:

High family attendance during physician rounds in an internal medicine department is associated with worse patient prognosis.