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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Duration of stay and outcome for inpatients on an assessment ward for elderly patients with cognitive impairment | | Author(s) | Sue Ball, Steve Simpson, Diane Beavis |
| Journal title | Quality in Ageing, vol 5, no 2, October 2004 |
| Pages | pp 12-20 |
| Source | http://www.pavpub.com |
| Keywords | Psychogeriatric patients ; Dementia ; Psychogeriatric units ; Admission [hospitals] ; Discharge [hospitals]. |
| Annotation | The move away from NHS long-stay bed provision inevitably means a change in function for wards for older patients with cognitive impairment to a more acute way of working. Evidence in the scarce literature suggests that those patients with higher dependency levels and behavioural problems stay in hospital longer, as do those awaiting a nursing home placement. This paper reports a prospective study of a consecutive group of 101 patients who died on, or were discharged from, an acute assessment ward for older patients with cognitive impairment. Clinical characteristics were recorded according to an inpatient dementia care pathway, which included Mini-MOUSEPAD, Crichton activities of daily living (ADLs), Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Burvill physical health score evaluations. Most patients had cerebrovascular disease (40%) or Alzheimer's disease (32.9%); their average MMSE score was 14.9. Mean duration of stay was 7.9 weeks. Self-funding status and lack of behavioural and psychological complications were associated with a reduced duration of stay. 22.2% of patients were successfully rehabilitated to their own homes, but 20% died. Discharge home was most strongly predicted by having a spouse at home, while the need for nursing home rather than residential care was related to the severity of cognitive impairment. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-051213205 A |
| Classmark | LF:E: EA: LDM: LD:QKH: LD:QKJ |
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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