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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Delayed transfer from hospital to community settings
— the older person's perspective | | Author(s) | Annette Swinkels, Theresa Mitchell |
| Journal title | Health and Social Care in the Community, vol 17, no 1, February 2009 |
| Pages | pp 45-53 |
| Source | http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/hsc |
| Keywords | Delayed discharge ; Discharge [hospitals] ; Community care ; Attitude ; In-patients ; Qualitative Studies. |
| Annotation | Prevention and management of delayed transfer of older people to community settings is an enduring issue in industrialised societies and is the subject of many recent polices in the UK. A deeper, evidence-based understanding of the complex organisational and interprofessional issues which contribute to delays in transfer has emerged in recent years. This study used conversational interviews and a phenomenological approach to explore and interpret participants' perceptions of delayed transfer from hospital into the community. A purposive sampling strategy was used to incorporate participants from different categories of delay identified on weekly Situation Reports. Participants aged 65+ (mean age 82 ±5.4 years) and with a mean delay of 32 days (±26) were recruited from three hospitals based in two NHS Trusts in the South of England. This paper focuses on their perceptions of the effects of delayed transfers into the community, their involvement in discharge planning and future community care needs. Findings show that participants actively or passively relinquished their involvement in the processes of discharge planning because of the perceived expertise of others, and also feelings of disempowerment secondary to poor health, low mood, dependency, lack of information and the intricacies of discharge planning processes for complex community care needs. Participants expressed a longing for continuity, emphasised the importance of social contact and sometimes appeared unrealistic about their future care needs. While current policies may have helped reduce overall numbers of delayed patients in the UK, this study suggests there is scope for improvement of the involvement of delayed patients in planning their discharge to the community. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-090121208 A |
| Classmark | LD:QKM: LD:QKJ: PA: DP: LF7: 3DP |
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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