RESUMEN
(1) Background: Older adults comprise a large proportion of hospitalized patients. Many are frail and require complex care. Geriatrics has developed models of care specific to this inpatient population. Our objective was to demonstrate the effect of a geriatric co-management team on clinical administrative indicators of care in Clinical Teaching Units (CTUs) that have adopted the Age-friendly Hospital (AFH) principles in Brazilian hospitals. (2) Methods: Following 3 months of implementation of the AFH principles in CTUs, two periods of the same 6 months of two consecutive years were compared. (3) Results: The total number of participants in the study was 641 and 743 in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Average length of patient-stay (length of stay: 8.7 ± 2.7 vs. 5.4 ± 1.7 days) and number of monthly complaints (44.2 ± 6.5 vs. 13.5 ± 2.2) were significantly lower with the co-management model. Number of homecare service referrals/month was also significantly higher (2.5 ± 1 vs. 38.3 ± 6.3). The 30-day readmission rates and total hospital costs per patient remained unchanged. (4) Conclusion: The presence of a geriatric co-management team in CTUs is of added benefit to increase the efficiency of the AFH for vulnerable older inpatients with reduced LOS and increased referrals to homecare services without increasing hospital costs.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: The optimal patient selection of frail elderly persons undergoing rehabilitation in Geriatric Day Hospital (GDH) programs remains uncertain. This study was done to identify potential predictors of rehabilitation outcomes for these patients. METHODS: This study is a retrospective cohort analysis of patients admitted to the rehabilitation program of our GDH, in Montreal, Canada, over a five year period. The measures considered were: Barthel Index, Older Americans Resources and Services, Folstein Mini Mental Status Exam, Timed Up & Go (TUG), 6-minute walk test (6 MWT), Gait speed, Berg Balance, grip strength and the European Quality of life - 5 Dimensions. Successful improvement with rehabilitation was defined as improvement in three or more tests of physical function. Logistic regression analysis using the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) was employed to select the optimal model for making predictions of rehabilitation success. RESULTS: A total of 335 patients were studied, but only 233 patients had a complete data set suitable for the predictive model. Average age was 81 years and patients attended the GDH an average of 24 visits. Significant changes were found in several measures of physical performance for many patients ranging from improved gait speed in 21.3% to improved TUG in 62.7% of the cohort. Fifty-eight percent of patients attained successful improvement with rehabilitation by our criteria. This group was characterized by lower test scores on admission. Using BIC, the best predictor model was the 6 MWT [OR: 0.994 per meter walked (95% CI: 0.990-0.997)]. CONCLUSIONS: The GDH rehabilitation program is effective in improving patients' physical performance. Although no single measure was found to be sufficiently predictive to help target candidates appropriately, the 6 MWT showed a trend to significance. Further research will be done to elucidate the utility of a composite 'rehab appropriateness index' and the role of International Classification of Function concepts for targeting frail elderly to GDH rehabilitation services.