Comparison between reports of care obtained by postdischarge telephone interview and predischarge personal interview.

The question of when to survey patients is the subject of ongoing debate because of the rising interest in monitoring quality from the consumer's perspective. This study of 772 randomly assigned patients from 17 hospitals compared results from predischarge in-person interviews (HI) and postdischarge telephone interviews (PHTI) for differences in participation rates, respondents' characteristics, and reports of quality most affected by nursing. The methods were equally costly. The results suggest that hospital interviews may enhance response rates of some vulnerable patient groups without jeopardizing the results.