Limitations:
The methods utilized to enroll patients in this study likely led to a
selection bias considering the responses were only from those
participants that the study team was able to communicate with directly
utilizing only the contact information available in the hematology
section database and electronic medical record. A large percentage of
potentially eligible subjects were unable to be reached, which may
indicate higher level of economic instability and potentially additional
challenges with access to care and changes in contact information. This
may have contributed to the discrepancy in results related to outpatient
visits and it’s lack of correlation with ED and hospital visits since
this cohort may not represent patients that might be more transitory,
leading to fewer outpatient visits with potentially higher frequency of
ED visits. Additionally, this was a small cohort of patients from a
single institution, so may not be an accurate representation of adult
patients with SCD from other institutions or geographical locations.