Helping Carers Care: An Exploratory Study of Factors Impacting Informal Family Carers and Their Use of Aged Care Services

OBJECTIVE: To identify elderly who are victims of falls, according to gender, who received care from prehospital services of Maringá, Paraná. METHODS: A cross-sectional exploratory study carried out with 1,444 elderly patients who suffered falls in Maringá in the period from 2006 to 2008. Data were gathered from prehospital care services, typed and processed using the Epi Info 6.04d(r). The χ² test was used to compare the falls in relation to gender (significance level = 0.05). RESULTS: The number of falls according to gender presented similar percentages, 51.0% for males and 49.0% for females. Significant differences between genders were observed regarding age (p < 0.001), presence of alcohol breath (p < 0.001), type of fall (p < 0.001), place of fall (p < 0.001), treatment at hospital (p = 0.023), number of injuries (p = 0.014), type of injury (p < 0.001) and injury location (p <0.001). CONCLUSION: These results show that falls happen differently among the elderly when considering gender. It highlights the importance of understanding these differences in detail and the circumstances in which the fall occurred, since this knowledge is key to plan preventive actions.

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Case Study for Stroke: National Stroke Data Linkage Program

International Journal for Population Data Science ◽

10.23889/ijpds.v5i5.1496 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (5) ◽

Author(s):

Monique F Kilkenny ◽

Joosup Kim ◽

Lachlan Dalli ◽

Amminadab Eliakundu ◽

Muideen Olaiya

Keyword(s):

Linked Data ◽

Data Linkage ◽

Stroke Care ◽

Aged Care ◽

Public Hospitals ◽

Economic Evaluations ◽

Care Services ◽

Linkage Program ◽

The Impact

IntroductionStroke is a leading cause of death and disability. Since 2012, our innovative national data linkage program, has enabled the successful linkage of data from the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry (AuSCR) with national and state-based datasets to investigate the continuum of stroke care and associated outcomes. Objectives and ApproachUsing stroke as a case study, in this symposium we will describe the use of linked data to undertake clinical and economic evaluations and contribute new knowledge for policy and practice. We have undertaken a range of iterative and innovative projects linking the AuSCR (used now in >80 public hospitals across Australia with follow-up survey of patients between 90-180 days) with various administrative datasets. Linkages with the National Death Index, inpatient admissions and emergency presentations, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS), Aged Care services; Ambulance Victoria, Australian Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre and general practice network datasets (POLAR) have been achieved. ResultsThe symposium will provide case studies and results from four data linkage projects involving the AuSCR: 1) Stroke123 (NHMRC: #1034415), a study to investigate the impact of quality of acute care on admission/emergency presentations and survival; 2) PRECISE (NHMRC:#1141848), a study to evaluate models of primary care involving linkages with PBS/MBS, aged care services and admissions/emergency data; 3) AMBULANCE: a study to investigate how pre-hospital care affects acute stroke care involving linkages with the ambulance and admissions/emergency datasets; and 4) POLAR: a study to understand the long-term management of stroke involving linkages with primary health data. Conclusion / ImplicationsThe National Stroke Data Linkage Program has been visionary and remains highly contemporary in the field of linked data. A unique feature of this program is the active participation of clinicians and policy-makers to ensure the evidence generated have direct benefits for accelerating change in practice and informing policy.

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Exploring the Ambulatory transitional care experience from Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACF) to Ambulatory Care Services

10.5176/2315-4330_wnc15.96 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Anthony Paul O’Brien ◽

Michelle Giles ◽

Lisa Lisa ◽

Sushilla Wagener ◽

Linda Ross ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ambulatory Care ◽

Transitional Care ◽

Aged Care ◽

Residential Aged Care ◽

Care Experience ◽

Care Services ◽

Care Facilities ◽

Aged Care Facilities ◽

Residential Aged Care Facilities ◽

Ambulatory Care Services

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Senior staff perspectives of a quality indicator program in public sector residential aged care services: a qualitative cross-sectional study in Victoria, Australia

Australian Health Review ◽

10.1071/ah14197 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 54 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Liam M. Chadwick ◽

Aleece MacPhail ◽

Joseph E. Ibrahim ◽

Linda McAuliffe ◽

Susan Koch ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quality Improvement ◽

Public Sector ◽

Data Collection ◽

Aged Care ◽

Residential Aged Care ◽

Successful Implementation ◽

Front Line ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Executive Staff ◽

Care Services

Objective The aims of the present study were to describe the views of senior clinical and executive staff employed in public sector residential aged care services (RACS) about the benefits and limitations of using quality indicators (QIs) for improving care, and to identify any barriers or enablers to implementing the QI program. Methods A cross-sectional qualitative study using semistructured interviews and direct observation of key informants involved in the QI program was performed across 20 public sector RACS in Victoria, Australia. Participants included senior clinical, executive and front-line staff at the RACS. The main outcome measures were perceived benefits and the enablers or barriers to the implementation of a QI program. Results Most senior clinical and executive staff respondents reported substantive benefits to using the QIs and the QI program. A limited number of staff believed that the QI program failed to improve the quality of care and that the resource requirements outweighed the benefits of the program, resulting in disaffected staff. Conclusions The QIs and QI program acted as a foundation for improving standards of care when used at the front line or point of care. Senior executive engagement in the QI program was vital to successful implementation. What is known about this topic? QIs measure the structures, processes or outcomes of care and identify issues that need further investigation or improvement. QIs are increasingly being adopted throughout the world. In Australia, the public sector RACS QIs project was implemented in 2006. It is yet to be formally evaluated. What does this paper add? Perceived benefits and limitations of the QI program were identified, together with barriers to successful implementation of the program and recommendations for future improvements. QI data were reported to improve quality culture and assist with identifying clinical areas for improvement. However, the QI program was associated with significantly increased workload and some stakeholders questioned its usefulness. The QI program studied could be improved through better access to education and training for those responsible for data collection and results dissemination to appropriate training and resources; and revision of the QI definitions and reporting methods. What are the implications for clinicians? QI data are useful for identifying opportunities for quality improvement. Despite data limitations, public sector RACS can use data for internal benchmarking, staff education and targeting of quality improvement interventions. At the policy level, revising the QI definitions and simplifying data collection and reporting would improve and strengthen the program. At the clinician and executive level, there is also a strong preference for QI data that allow comparison and benchmarking between facilities.

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‘I go home with a happy heart’. Enhancing community aged care services to sustain togetherness: Perspectives from Australian staff and clients

Health & Social Care in the Community ◽

10.1111/hsc.13602 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Joyce Siette ◽

Gilbert Knaggs ◽

Amy D Nguyen ◽

Lindsey Brett ◽

Mikaela Jorgensen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Aged Care ◽

Care Services ◽

Community Aged Care

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Multiple antihypertensive use and risk of mortality in residents of aged care services: a prospective cohort study

Aging Clinical and Experimental Research ◽

10.1007/s40520-019-01336-x ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 32 (8) ◽

pp. 1541-1549 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Miriam Kerry ◽

J. Simon Bell ◽

Claire Keen ◽

Janet K. Sluggett ◽

Jenni Ilomäki ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cohort Study ◽

Prospective Cohort Study ◽

Prospective Cohort ◽

Aged Care ◽

Care Services ◽

Risk Of Mortality

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Use of Falls Risk Increasing Drugs in Residents at High and Low Falls Risk in Aged Care Services

Journal of Applied Gerontology ◽

10.1177/0733464819888848 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 77-86

Author(s):

Kate N. Wang ◽

J. Simon Bell ◽

Julia F. M. Gilmartin-Thomas ◽

Edwin C. K. Tan ◽

Tina Cooper ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽

Aged Care ◽

Inverse Probability ◽

Falls Risk ◽

Care Services ◽

High Prevalence ◽

Sedative Hypnotics ◽

Considerable Morbidity ◽

Inverse Probability Weighted ◽

Explicit Criteria

Falls are associated with considerable morbidity and mortality in aged care services and falls risk increasing drugs (FRIDs) are often overlooked as a contributor to falls. This study aims to investigate the association between the risk of falling and use of FRIDs from aged care services. Inverse-probability-weighted multinomial logistic regression was used to estimate the association between falls risk and regular FRIDs in 383 residents from six Australian aged care services. Overall, residents at high and low falls risk had similar prevalence of FRIDs. Prevalence of antipsychotics and sedative-hypnotics was low. Residents at high falls risk had higher adjusted odds of using ≥2 psychotropic medications (odds ratio [OR] = 1.75, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.17-2.61) and ≥2 medications that cause/worsen orthostatic hypotension (OR = 3.59, 95% CI = 2.27-5.69). High prevalence of FRIDs was mainly attributable to medications for which residents had clinical indications. Clinicians appeared to have largely avoided FRIDs that explicit criteria deem potentially inappropriate for high falls risk.

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