Communication ResearchCONNECTNCT07032818
Adapted Hospital Discharge Intervention: the CONNECT Pilot
A study testing Additional post discharge phone call in people with Communication Research, run by Boston Medical Center at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
Hospital discharge is a dangerous time for patients: one in five will suffer an adverse event, such as a medication error, and nearly 25% will be readmitted within 30 days. This time is even more dangerous for patients with who face communication barriers, including those with non-English language preference (NELP)… Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and older
- Conditions the study is for
- Communication Research
- What is being tested?
- Additional post discharge phone call
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 60 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 16 Jan 2026to Mar 2027
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- Not yet: the study is under way
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- No healthy volunteers
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- Registered language in Epic (written or spoken) is Spanish, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Cape Verdean, or Vietnamese
- Admitted to medicine team at Boston Medical Center (BMC)
- Being discharged home (to the community)
Who cannot join
- On airborne infections precautions at time of recruitment
- On C diff precautions at time of recruitment
- On suicide precautions at time of recruitment
- Nurse report of participant displaying cognitive impairment, ongoing delirium, or aggression
- Discharge observed during a prior admission
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.
United States1 site, 1 recruiting
- Recruiting
Boston Medical Center
Boston, Massachusetts, 02118
Kirsten Austad, MD PhD, 617-414-2050
About this study
Official title: Communication Outreach for Navigation and Needs-based Care Transitions (CONNECT): A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
Hospital discharge is a dangerous time for patients: one in five will suffer an adverse event, such as a medication error, and nearly 25% will be readmitted within 30 days. This time is even more dangerous for patients with who face communication barriers, including those with non-English language preference (NELP), low health literacy, and the elderly.
The investigators will pilot a post-discharge educational intervention to reinforce written discharge instructions (known as the After Visit Summary or AVS) using a randomized controlled trial design (2:1 intervention: control). The control group will receive current standard of care discharge education which includes a nurse reviewing their AVS and an automated call in English that allows patients to numerically select types of problems/questions that are then escalated to a nurse who should return their call within a few days. The intervention group will receive the standard of care discharge education with the AVS and an additional post-discharge educational call delivered by a registered nurse or other qualified health professional with the option to have written instructions professionally translated and sent via MyChart message--if available in their preferred language.
- Conditions
- Communication Research
- Being tested
- Additional post discharge phone call
- Keywords
- Discharge instructions, Non-English language preference, Adapting hospital discharge
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Additional post discharge phone callOther
24-72 hours after hospital discharge, a nurse will call participants to review the written After Visit Summary (AVS) given at discharge, including primary diagnosis, self-care instructions, emergency plan, medication changes, how and why to take medication, and scheduled follow up. These phone calls will take on average 10-15 minutes.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Educational intervention | Other | Participants randomized into this arm will receive current hospital discharge education and an additional post-discharge educational call. Receives: Other: Additional post discharge phone call |
| Standard of care | No intervention | Participants randomized into this arm will receive current hospital discharge education. |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Retention success by linguistic group
Number of enrolled participants who completed all study assessments stratified by linguistic group.
Measured: 12 months
Fidelity to the intervention
The number of scheduled educations calls that were completed for participants in the intervention arm based on nursing documentation in Epic.
Measured: 12 months
Secondary outcomes (3)
Acceptability of the intervention
The Acceptability of Intervention Measure (AIM) will be completed by participants in the intervention arm to assess acceptability. It has four questions with 5 Likert responses where 1 = Completely disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neither agree nor disagree, 4 = Agree, 5 = Completely agree, The range of scores from 4 to 20 with higher scores indicating greater acceptability.
Measured: 12 months
Feasibility of the intervention
Feasibility will be assessed by the number of participants in the intervention arm whose educational call was language concordant based on nursing documentation in Epic.
Measured: 12 months
Patient Understanding of Discharge Instruction (UDI) Scale
Assessed by a composite score of six key domains of discharge instructions (primary diagnosis, self-care instructions, return precautions, medication changes, medication indications, follow-up) as determined by physician adjudicators (1=poor, 4 = near perfect). Higher scores demonstrate better understanding.
Measured: 12 months
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted24 Jun 2025
- Study start16 Jan 2026
- Primary completionMar 2027 (estimated)
- Study completionMar 2027 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for Communication ResearchStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by Boston Medical CenterThe sponsor's other registered studies.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Health services research
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Model description
- Two arm randomized controlled trial (2:1 intervention:control), Randomization stratified by language.
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 60 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Boston Medical Center
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
- Responsible party
- Sponsor
- Investigators
- Kirsten Austad, MD MPH, Principal investigator, Boston Medical Center, Family Medicine
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07032818
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- H-45822
- Other IDs
- K23MD019068-01
- Acronym
- CONNECT
- Status last verified
- Jan 2026
- First submitted
- 13 Jun 2025
- Last updated
- 20 Jan 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 20 Jan 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Communication Outreach for Navigation and Needs-based Care Transitions (CONNECT): A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07032818
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- CONNECT / H-45822
- Conditions
- Communication Research
- Keywords
- Discharge instructions, Non-English language preference, Adapting hospital discharge
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Recruiting
- Enrolment
- 60 participants (estimated)
- Lead sponsor
- Boston Medical CenterUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
- Study start
- 16 Jan 2026 (actual)
- Primary completion
- Mar 2027 (estimated)
- Study completion
- Mar 2027 (estimated)
- First posted
- 24 Jun 2025 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
Hospital discharge is a dangerous time for patients: one in five will suffer an adverse event, such as a medication error, and nearly 25% will be readmitted within 30 days. This time is even more dangerous for patients with who face communication barriers, including those with non-English language preference (NELP), low health literacy, and the elderly.
The investigators will pilot a post-discharge educational intervention to reinforce written discharge instructions (known as the After Visit Summary or AVS) using a randomized controlled trial design (2:1 intervention: control). The control group will receive current standard of care discharge education which includes a nurse reviewing their AVS and an automated call in English that allows patients to numerically select types of problems/questions that are then escalated to a nurse who should return their call within a few days. The intervention group will receive the standard of care discharge education with the AVS and an additional post-discharge educational call delivered by a registered nurse or other qualified health professional with the option to have written instructions professionally translated and sent via MyChart message--if available in their preferred language.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Health services research
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 2
- Model description
- Two arm randomized controlled trial (2:1 intervention:control), Randomization stratified by language.
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Educational intervention | Other | Other: Additional post discharge phone callParticipants randomized into this arm will receive current hospital discharge education and an additional post-discharge educational call. |
| Standard of care | No intervention | –Participants randomized into this arm will receive current hospital discharge education. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Not accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (3 listed)
- Registered language in Epic (written or spoken) is Spanish, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Cape Verdean, or Vietnamese
- Admitted to medicine team at Boston Medical Center (BMC)
- Being discharged home (to the community)
Key exclusion criteria (5 listed)
- On airborne infections precautions at time of recruitment
- On C diff precautions at time of recruitment
- On suicide precautions at time of recruitment
- Nurse report of participant displaying cognitive impairment, ongoing delirium, or aggression
- Discharge observed during a prior admission
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Additional post discharge phone call24-72 hours after hospital discharge, a nurse will call participants to review the written After Visit Summary (AVS) given at discharge, including primary diagnosis, self-care instructions, emergency plan, medication changes, how and why to take medication, and scheduled follow up. These phone calls will take on average 10-15 minutes. | Other | Educational intervention |
Primary outcome
Retention success by linguistic group
Time frame: 12 months
Number of enrolled participants who completed all study assessments stratified by linguistic group.
Fidelity to the intervention
Time frame: 12 months
The number of scheduled educations calls that were completed for participants in the intervention arm based on nursing documentation in Epic.
3 secondary outcomes
Acceptability of the intervention
Time frame: 12 months
Feasibility of the intervention
Time frame: 12 months
Patient Understanding of Discharge Instruction (UDI) Scale
Time frame: 12 months
Results and safety
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 20 Jan 2026.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: No
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part.
Kirsten Austad, MD MPH principal investigator
Boston Medical Center, Family Medicine
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Additional post discharge phone call in people with Communication Research, run by Boston Medical Center at 1 site in United States.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 3 inclusion and 5 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: looking for participants now, as of the sponsor's last update on 20 Jan 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
Contact Kirsten Austad, MD MPH (617 414-2050, kirsten.austad@bmc.org), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Retention success by linguistic group (time frame: 12 months). The study lists 2 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 20 Jan 2026; AzTrials last refreshed its copy on 3 Nov 2026.