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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Assessing the outcomes of day hospital care for older people
— a review of the literature | | Author(s) | Jane Bentley, Julienne Meyer, Kalman Kafetz |
| Journal title | Quality in Ageing, vol 2, no 4, December 2001 |
| Pages | pp 33-41 |
| Keywords | Day hospitals ; Rehabilitation ; Aftercare ; Evaluation ; Literature reviews. |
| Annotation | Recent Government interest in intermediate care has increased pressure on day hospitals in particular to supply evidence on efficiency, because they face competition for their core services (such as rehabilitation) from other community-based providers. This review was conducted as part of a small study to evaluate a day hospital service in North London. Findings suggest that the outcomes of day hospital care are especially difficult to appraise, because of the highly variable nature of both individual facilities and the needs and capabilities of patients attending. Traditional quantitative methods, such as randomised controlled trials or the use of standardised tools to assess treatment outcomes, face severe methodological problems owing to this variability. Three problems would appear to hamper such research: comparability difficulties; defining outcomes; and determining complete costs. The review suggests that future researchers take a more user-focused and qualitative research approach, for example, evaluating joint care plans with patients and staff, by assessing costs, by following small numbers of users through treatment, and by studying users' and carers' views of (and preferences for) care. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-020117207 A |
| Classmark | LDD: LM: LN: 4C: 64A |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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