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An estimate of post‐acute intermediate care need in an elderly care department for older people
Author(s) -
Young John,
Forster Anne,
Green John
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
health and social care in the community
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.984
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1365-2524
pISSN - 0966-0410
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2524.2003.00429.x
Subject(s) - medicine , acute care , quarter (canadian coin) , acute hospital , rehabilitation , older people , confidence interval , continuing care , medical emergency , emergency medicine , nursing , health care , gerontology , physical therapy , archaeology , economics , history , economic growth
There is an expectation that intermediate care services for older people will be widely introduced in England. The planning of such services should be based on an understanding of required capacity. The present study provides a needs estimate for post‐acute intermediate care. Older patients admitted acutely to an elderly care department in a district general hospital serving a large city in northern England were followed prospectively by a research team until medical stability had occurred in the opinion of the senior ward nurses and the responsible consultant. The clinical staff then determined if the patient had continuing post‐acute care needs or if imminent discharge was possible. Out of 1211 acutely admitted patients, 997 became medically stable and 312 [25.8% of admissions; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 23.3–28.2%] were considered to require post‐acute care, and of these, 251 (20.7% of admissions; 95% CI = 18.4–23.0%) needed post‐acute rehabilitation care. In conclusion, the present authors suggest that intermediate care services providing post‐acute care for older people should have a capacity to address the needs of up to one‐quarter of acute admissions to a district general hospital elderly care department.