RT Journal
A1 Schermer TJ, Lucas PF, Heijdra YF
T1 Relapse after hospital admission for copd: Are routine outpatient follow-up visits the way to go?
JF Archives of Internal Medicine
JO Archives of Internal Medicine
YR 2011
FD April 25
VO 171
IS 8
SP 782
OP 790
DO 10.1001/archinternmed.2011.145
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinternmed.2011.145
AB 
Our first comment is a methodological one. The authors have looked at the risk of emergency department visits and readmissions in the 30-day period after hospital discharge because most preventable readmissions occur within this time frame. However, it was recently demonstrated that exacerbations in COPD are not random events but cluster together in time such that there is a high-risk period for recurrence in the 8-week period after the initial exacerbation.2 Knowing this, we wondered if the conclusion from the study by Sharma et al1 remains the same if a 60-day follow-up period is applied.