Anticipating care needs of patients after discharge from hospital: Frail and elderly patients without physiological abnormality on day of admission are more likely to require social services input

• Published in: European journal of internal medicine Vol. 45; pp. 74 - 77
• Main Authors: Subbe, C.P., Goulden, N., Mawdsley, K., Smith, R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.11.2017
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Female; Frail Elderly; Frailty; Hospital; Humans; Logistic Models; Long-Term Care; Male; Patient Discharge; Prospective Studies; Social Work; Triage; United Kingdom; Frailty; Patient discharge; Triage; Hospital; Social work
• ISSN: 0953-6205; 1879-0828
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejim.2017.09.029

Acute admissions to hospital are rising. As a part of a service evaluation we examined pathways of patients following hospital discharge depending on data available on admission to hospital. We merged data available on admission to the Wrexham Maelor hospital from an existing data-base in the Acute Medical Unit with follow up data from local social services as part of a data sharing agreement. Patients requiring support by social services post-discharge were matched with patients not requiring social services from the same post-code. Stepwise logistic regression analysis identified candidate variables predicting likely support need. Decision tree analysis identified sub-groups of patients with higher likelihood to require support by social services after discharge from hospital. We found patients with normal physiology on admission as evidenced by a value of zero for the National Early Warning Score who were frail or older than 85years were most likely to require support after discharge. Information available on admission to hospital might inform long term care needs. Prospective testing is needed. The algorithms are prone to be dependent on availability of local services but our methodology is expected to be transferable to other organizations. •Severity of illness and frailty on admission predict care needs post-discharge.•Decision tree analysis generates simple rules for clinicians.•Results might depend on local support of frail elderly patients outside hospital.