S Sage 1; S O'Riordan 1; A Baxter 1; J Seeley 1

Frailty Hospital at Home, Urgent Care Services, Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust

Abstract

Introduction

East Kent Frailty H@H provides an alternative to admission to an acute hospital for frail people who are acutely unwell. Treatment at home is often the preferred option for people living with frailty and prevents some of the complications associated with hospitalisation such as environmental delirium, loss of function, isolation from usual contacts and infection. However, it was not known whether H@H also reduced the workload of the acute hospital.

Method

Frail people who are acutely unwell are offered treatment in H@H instead of admission to an acute hospital. Referrals were made by community clinician eg Primary care, community nurse, Single point of access, paramedics etc. Interventions include CGA based assessment, point-of-care blood tests, ultrasound, urgent outpatient x-ray, CT and MRI scans, Intravenous therapies etc. Data were collected using electronic patient records for the community and hospital services. The data collection period was April 22-Dec 23 Patients of 69 and over were included. SPA charts were generated for results.

Results

Before the introduction of H@H the number of non-elective admissions plus the corridor activity closely matched the predicted number of admissions. Since the introduction of the H@H there is a significant drop in the number of non-elective admissions plus the corridor activity compared to predicted admissions. This number (~400 per month) is similar to the number admitted to H@H.

Conclusion

H@H Data validated by NHS England has demonstrated that for every 1.03 patients treated 1 non-elective admission to the acute hospital was avoided.