Abstract
BackgroundOlder adults remain the highest utilization group with unplanned visits to emergency departments and hospital admissions. Many have considered what leads to this high utilization and the answers provided have depended upon the independent measures available in the datasets used. This project was designed to further understanding of the reasons for older adult ED visits and admissions to acute care hospitals.MethodsA secondary analysis of data from a cross-national sample of community residing elderly, 60 years of age or older, and most of whom received services from a local home-care program was conducted. The assessment instrument used in this study is the interRAI HC (home care), designed for use in assessing elderly home care recipients. The model specification stage of the study identified the baseline independent variables that do and do not predict the follow-up measure of hospitalization and ED use. Stepwise logistic regression was used next to identify characteristics that best identified elders who subsequently entered a hospital or visited an ED. The items generated from the final multivariate logistic equation using the interRAI home care measures comprise the interRAI Hospital-ED Risk Index.ResultsIndependent measures in three key domains of clinical complications, disease diagnoses and specialized treatments were related to subsequent hospitalization or ED use. Among the eighteen clinical complication measures with higher, meaningful odds ratios are pneumonia, urinary tract infection, fever, chest pain, diarrhea, unintended weight loss, a variety of skin conditions, and subject self-reported poor health. Disease diagnoses with a meaningful relationship with hospital/ED use include coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, cancer, emphysema and renal failure. Specialized treatments with the highest odds ratios were blood transfusion, IV infusion, wound treatment, radiation and dialysis. Two measures, Alzheimer’s disease and day care appear to have a protective effect for hospitalization/ED use with lower odds ratios.ConclusionsExamination into “preventable” hospitalizations and re-hospitalizations for older adults who have the highest rates of utilization are occurring beneath an umbrella of assuring the highest quality of care and controlling costs. The interRAI Hospitalization-ED Risk Index offers an effective approach to predicting hospitalization utilization among community dwelling older adults.
Highlights
Older adults remain the highest utilization group with unplanned visits to emergency departments and hospital admissions
For the home care model derivation sample, the baseline hospital-emergency departments (ED) visit rates were significantly higher than the rates at the time of the follow-up assessment: hospital stay – 37.7% vs. 25.3%; ED – 19.8% vs. 15.7%. These data suggest that once the immediate crisis that brought the person into a home care program passed the hospital and ED utilization rate decline
The clinical conditions, disease diagnosis, and treatment items making up the Hospital-ED Risk Index work well for Discussion The elderly represent only 13 percent of the population in the United States, but account for 37 percent of hospital discharges [33] and this phenomenon is not unique to the United States. Both to assure the highest quality of care and to control costs, one must understand why elders go to emergency departments and why they are admitted to the hospital at such a high rate
Summary
Older adults remain the highest utilization group with unplanned visits to emergency departments and hospital admissions. Many have considered what leads to this high utilization and the answers provided have depended upon the independent measures available in the datasets used. This project was designed to further understanding of the reasons for older adult ED visits and admissions to acute care hospitals. At the same time the number of visits to emergency departments has continued to grow This is all the more striking as non-hospital based surgical centers [7] and a variety of innovative community care programs have become widespread [8-10]. A review of papers published on quantitative methods that examined the relationship between hospitalization/emergency room visits and designated qualities or states of older adults was completed and summarized
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