| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
Effects of locality based community hospital care on independence in older people needing rehabilitation
— randomised controlled trial | | Author(s) | John Green, John Young, Anne Forster |
| Journal title | British Medical Journal, vol 331, no 7512, 6 August 2005 |
| Pages | pp 317-320 |
| Source | http://www.bmj.com |
| Keywords | General hospitals ; Community hospital ; Rehabilitation ; Independence ; Comparison ; Evaluation ; Bradford. |
| Annotation | The contraction of the district general hospital and the shift toward locally based services have stimulated new developments in community hospitals. This study is based on 220 patients in Bradford who needed rehabilitation after an acute illness that required hospital admission. Patients were randomly allocated to a locally based community hospital or remained in a department for the care of older people in a district general hospital. Among measures used were the Nottingham Extended Activities of Daily Living Scale, the General Health Questionnaire 28 (carer) (GHQ-28), and the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP). Median length of stay was 15 days in both hospitals. Independence at 6 months was greater in the community hospital group. Results for secondary outcome measures - including care satisfaction and measures of carer burden - were similar for both groups. Overall, though, a locality based community hospital for post-acute care is associated with greater independence for older people than care in wards for older people in a district general hospital. In a commentary, "Intermediate care: policy before evidence", which follows, Norman J Vetter suggests that Green and colleagues' article does little more to justify intermediate care as a way of preventing hospital admissions. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-050906224 A |
| Classmark | LD3: LD:PA: LM: C3: 48: 4C: 88A * |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|