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Experience of establishing an acute geriatric outreach service versus subacute service to nursing homes
Author(s) -
Chan Daniel K. Y.,
Liu Frank X.,
Irwanto Deni,
Prasetyo Davin,
Ozorio Gerard,
Li Feika,
Smith Matthew,
Sharma Anurag,
Chen Jack
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
internal medicine journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 1444-0903
DOI - 10.1111/imj.14104
Subject(s) - medicine , outreach , incidence (geometry) , service (business) , emergency department , skilled nursing facility , acute care , nursing homes , emergency medicine , nursing , medical emergency , health care , physics , economy , optics , political science , law , economics , economic growth
To share our experience of establishing an acute outreach service to nursing homes and to evaluate the impact of such service on emergency department presentations, data were drawn from a pre‐existing database from 2013 to 2017. Of the 986 acute patients treated in 12 nursing homes over a 23‐month period, the acute geriatric outreach service was shown to be safe, with few adverse events (one allergic reaction) and 5.3% of patients required transfer to hospital. The acute service decreased emergency department presentation of nursing home patients by 10% compared to the subacute service (incidence rate ratio = 0.90; 95% confidence interval: 0.84–0.96; P = 0.001). Cost–benefit analysis showed for every $1 spent, a saving of $5 was realised.