Hospital discharge among frail elderly people: a pilot study in Sweden

Abstract

A conceptual framework for the hospital discharge process was designed. It was intended to measure frail elderly people's experience of their quality of care in terms of satisfaction and trustworthiness during their hospital discharge and their experience at home. The present pilot study aimed at evaluating the viability of an occupational therapy clinical tool. Nine frail elderly Swedish individuals reported the quality of their care as mostly satisfactory and trustworthy, according to their responses to the Discharged Patients' Enquiry Questionnaire (DPEQ). However, the participants were not satisfied with the non-continuity among the home-helpers, the lack of rehabilitation services and the non-availability of professional help, for example occupational therapy for increasing social contacts. The participant's responses indicated that occupational therapy interventions, that is, assessment of home environment (n = 6), improvement of housing accessibility (n = 3) and prescription of assistive devices (n = 4), contributed to their ability to live at home. The results are limited owing to the small number of participants. Future investigations of the care that patients discharged from hospitals receive are recommended to explore supplementary assessments of spouses' care burden and participants' quality of life, and the psychometric functions of the conceptual framework. In summary, the conceptual framework described may be a viable tool for evaluating the discharge process among frail elderly people discharged from hospitals to their homes.