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Which Aged Care inpatients are potentially suitable for community‐based acute care?
Author(s) -
McCarthy Robyn M,
Ogle Susan J,
Finnegan Terence P,
Hilmer Sarah N
Publication year - 2012
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/j.1741-6612.2011.00525.x
Subject(s) - medicine , acute care , presentation (obstetrics) , aged care , older people , health care , emergency medicine , gerontology , surgery , economics , economic growth
Aim: To identify Aged Care inpatients potentially suitable for Acute/Post‐Acute Care (APAC)‐Aged Care, a new service offering community‐based acute care as an alternative to hospital admission for frail older people. Methods: Criteria were developed to identify suitable patients for APAC‐Aged Care and applied to consecutive Aged Care inpatient admissions at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia, through retrospective chart review. Results: Only 5/90 reviewed patients were potentially suitable for APAC‐Aged Care. All five were from Residential Aged Care Facilities. The median age of the 90 patients was 86 years; 30% lived in Residential Aged Care Facilities; 53% of patients were medically stable on presentation; 70% required investigations beyond a standard baseline set; 27% had either no new functional decline on presentation or adequate community support to manage this; 91% had allied health input and 41% had medical/surgical consultation. Conclusion: APAC‐Aged Care is a potentially suitable alternative to acute inpatient hospitalisation in a select minority of Aged Care patients.