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Characteristics of patients referred for assessment of decision‐making capacity in the acute medical setting of an outer‐metropolitan hospital—A retrospective case series
Author(s) -
Logan Benignus,
Fleury Aisling,
Wong Lillian,
Fraser Sally,
Bernard Anne,
White Ben
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
australasian journal on ageing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1741-6612
pISSN - 1440-6381
DOI - 10.1111/ajag.12693
Subject(s) - medicine , referral , audit , dementia , metropolitan area , retrospective cohort study , univariate analysis , descriptive statistics , emergency medicine , family medicine , multivariate analysis , disease , statistics , mathematics , management , pathology , economics
Objective To identify characteristics of older people referred for assessment of decision‐making capacity in the acute hospital setting. Methods A retrospective chart audit was undertaken for 98 consecutive medical inpatients referred for capacity assessments between February 2015 and August 2017 in an outer‐metropolitan hospital. The data were analysed using descriptive and univariate analysis. Results In this case series, 56% of patients had a diagnosis of dementia. Social isolation was common; 70% were not presently married, and 63% had no community services. For 90% of patients, the referral was to determine the person's capacity to make their own accommodation decisions—usually to return home on discharge. Of those with impaired capacity, 54% were discharged to residential aged care, whilst most who retained capacity were discharged home (73%). Those with impaired capacity were more likely to have a diagnosis of dementia and a prolonged length of stay (both P < 0.001).