To determine which factors are associated with compliance with outpatient follow-up plan of discharged patients from a psychiatric ward of a general hospital.

A sample of 120 patients consecutively admitted to a psychiatric general ward, and referred to an outpatient clinic after discharge formed the sample.

To explore the factors predicting whether patients attended or did not attend to the outpatient clinic, a logistic regression analysis was conducted.

After controlling for age, gender, and overall clinical case severity (assessed by the Severity Psychiatric Illness Scale), have been previously attended in the outpatient clinic was the only factor that predicted the compliance with post-discharge outpatient plan (as dichotomous variable: attended/not attended), Odds Ratio (OR) = 12.53, P=0.042. Overall clinical case severity did not predict attendance to the outpatient clinic after discharge, OR=0.937, P=0.452.

Patients who were attended in an outpatient clinic prior to admission had 12-fold more likely to adhere with post-discharge outpatient plan than patients who were not previously attended. This result highlights the importance of strengthening community-hospital liaison strategies.