Abstract
Abstract Background Patients with increasing frailty constitute a large proportion of acute hospital admissions. Deconditioning is a known complication of acute medical admission. This study reviews the outcomes for a population identified as frail during their admission, including utilisation of formal rehabilitation and discharge destination. Mortality rates at 6 and 12 months are also reviewed to assess if frailty could be used as a prognostication tool. Methods The patients selected were included in a hospital wide point prevalence study in 2023. Patients included were over 70 years of age and admitted under a medical team. Clinical frailty scale (CFS) score was recorded on all patients. The hospital electronic record provided information on transfer for formal rehabilitation, discharge home with home care package or discharge to long term care. The cohort were coded based on discharge destination. Mortality outcome at 6 and 12 months were also obtained via electronic record and RIP.ie. Results 233 patients were included, 177 (75.9%) were identified as frail. Only 8 (3.43%) of the group were discharged to formal rehabilitation. 52 (22.3%) were transferred directly to Long term care from hospital without a trial of formal rehabilitation. 8 of this group had specific rehab needs documents, all 8 were alive at 6 and 12 months. Approximately 40% of the total group had died within 12 months. Conclusion Rehabilitation benefits the individual patient and the health service as a whole, by impacting care needs and facilitating discharge home (Van Craen et al., 2010). This study has shown that approximately 1 in 4 patients over 70 were discharged directly to long term care without appropriate rehabilitation. Just over 3.4% of the group received formal rehabilitation outside of the acute hospital. This has highlighted the need to radically act on egress pathways to provide appropriate rehabilitation and care for our patients.
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