Patient-reported outcome and experience measures in geriatric emergency medicine.

James D Van Oppen,Nicola J Mackintosh,Simon P Conroy,Jose M Valderas

doi:10.1007/s00391-020-01777-4

Abstract

Older people with frailty and health crises have complex physical and social needs. Modern emergency care systems are fast-flowing, using protocols optimised for single-problem presentations. Systems must incorporate individualised care to best serve people with multiple problems. Healthcare quality is typically appraised with service metrics, such as department length of stay and mortality. Worldwide, patient-reported outcome measures (PROM) and patient-reported experience measures (PREM) are increasingly used in research, service development and performance evaluation, paving the ground for their use to support individual clinical decision-making. The PROMs and PREMs are person-centred metrics, which inform healthcare decisions at the individual level and which at the strategic level drive improvement through comparison of interprovider effectiveness. To date, there is no PROM or PREM specifically developed for older people with frailty and emergency care needs.

Highlights

Older people living with frailty have poorer health outcomes after even short hospital stays
In the UK, approximately three million annual Emergency Departments (ED) attendances are by people living with frailty
Traditional fast-flowing, protocol-driven emergency care systems are well-suited for people with single problems, but may underserve people with atypical presentations or complex co-morbidities [2, 21]

Summary

Introduction

Older people living with frailty have poorer health outcomes after even short hospital stays [15]. Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) and Experience Measures (PREMs) are increasingly used in research, service development and performance evaluation, paving the ground for their use to support individual clinical decision-making. PROMs and PREMs are person-centred metrics which at individual level inform healthcare decisions and which at strategic level drive improvement through interprovider effectiveness comparison.

Results

Conclusion