Experience of establishing an acute geriatric outreach service versus subacute service to nursing homes

• Published in: Internal medicine journal Vol. 48; no. 11; pp. 1396 - 1399
• Main Authors: Chan, Daniel K. Y., Liu, Frank X., Irwanto, Deni, Prasetyo, Davin, Ozorio, Gerard, Li, Feika, Smith, Matthew, Sharma, Anurag, Chen, Jack
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melbourne John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 01.11.2018; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: acute service; ambulance; emergency admission; Geriatrics; Hypersensitivity; nursing home; Nursing homes; Outreach services; safety; nursing home; emergency admission; ambulance; safety; acute service
• ISSN: 1444-0903; 1445-5994
• DOI: 10.1111/imj.14104

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.