An interventional study of Automatic follow-up recommendation and As-needed follow-up recommendation in Children With Medical Complexity, Respiratory Tract Infections (RTI) and Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), sponsored by Seattle Children's Hospital. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 1 Year to 16 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-10-08.
Sponsored by Seattle Children's Hospital · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
Children with medical complexity often receive a recommendation to see an outpatient clinician soon after leaving the hospital. It is uncertain whether every child needs this routine visit or whether follow-up can be guided by the family's concerns and the child's recovery. AFTERCARE is a multicenter pilot randomized trial comparing these two follow-up recommendations for children hospitalized with an acute infection.
Families will be assigned by chance to receive either a recommendation to arrange follow-up with their usual outpatient clinician within seven days or a recommendation to seek follow-up if the child is not improving as expected or new concerns arise. Families in both groups may seek medical care whenever needed. The study will assess recruitment, follow-up data collection, delivery of the recommendations and acceptability. Caregiver surveys and medical record review will also describe outpatient visits and hospital returns. This pilot will inform the design of a larger trial, and is not designed to establish that the strategies are equally safe or effective.
1,031 studies on the registry are indexed under Respiratory Tract Infections; 144 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 160 is below the median of 199 across 698 interventional studies indexed under Respiratory Tract Infections.
Browse Respiratory Tract Infections studies →Seattle Children's Hospital is the lead sponsor of 211 studies on the registry; 44 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Exclusion Criteria
Families are instructed to arrange follow-up with their usual outpatient clinician within seven days after hospital discharge.
Behavioral: Automatic follow-up recommendation
Families are instructed that follow-up is recommended if the child is not improving as expected or new concerns arise.
Behavioral: As-needed follow-up recommendation
Families are instructed to arrange follow-up with their usual outpatient clinician within seven days after hospital discharge. This is the clinician or team the family usually contacts first for health concerns and may be a generalist, complex-care clinician or specialist. Other specialist care continues as usual.
Families are instructed that follow-up is recommended if the child is not improving as expected or new concerns arise. This recommendation concerns follow-up with the clinician or team the family usually contacts first for health concerns, which may be a generalist, complex-care clinician or specialist. Other specialist care continues as usual.
Eligible hospitalizations per site per month
Number of hospitalizations confirmed as initially eligible through study screening per month that a study site is open to recruitment.
Time frame: During recruitment, anticipated to last approximately 2 years.
Clinician acceptance rate
Percentage of consented patients with known objection status for whom no clinician objected to randomization, including no reply after clinician notification and the response period.
Time frame: During the initial hospitalization, before randomization or the end of recruitment for that patient (up to hospital day 30).
Family consent rate
Percentage of initially eligible families offered study participation who provide consent.
Time frame: During recruitment in the initial hospitalization (up to hospital day 30).
Difference in seven-day primary care follow-up between study arms
Automatic minus as-needed difference in the percentage of patients with known follow-up status who have a clinical visit or call with their regular doctor or usual care team within seven days after discharge.
Time frame: Within 7 days after hospital discharge.
Plan to share: No
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Oct 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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