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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Randomised controlled trial comparing effectiveness and acceptability of an early discharge, hospital at home scheme with acute hospital care | | Author(s) | Suzanne H Richards, Joanna Coast, David J Gunnell |
| Journal title | British Medical Journal, vol 316, 13 June 1998 |
| Pages | pp 1796-1801 |
| Keywords | Discharge [hospitals] ; Aftercare ; Hospital services ; Quality of life ; Life satisfaction ; Mobility ; Self care capacity ; Comparison ; Bristol. |
| Annotation | Pressure on hospital beds, the increasing age of the population, and high costs associated with acute hospital care have fuelled the search for alternatives to in-patient hospital care. To compare the effectiveness and acceptability of early discharge to a hospital at home scheme with routine discharge, a randomised controlled trial was conducted in north Bristol with 241 hospitalised but medically stable older patients fulfilling criteria for early discharge. They received either hospital at home care or routine hospital care. Quality of life, satisfaction, and physical functioning were assessed at 4 weeks and 3 months, as was length of stay in hospital or hospital at home scheme, and mortality after 3 months. There were no significant differences in patient mortality, quality of life, and physical functioning between the two schemes. Only one of 11 measures of patient satisfaction was significantly different: hospital at home patients perceived higher levels of involvement in decisions. Length of stay for those receiving routine hospital care was 62% of that for the at home scheme. However, because of qualitative differences between the two interventions, this does not necessarily mean differences in effectiveness. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-980828203 A |
| Classmark | LD:QKJ: LN: LD: F:59: F:5HH: C4: CA: 48: 8AB * |
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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