scholarly journals Bridging the Intergenerational Gap: The Outcomes of a Student-Initiated, Longitudinal, Inter-professional, Inter-generational Home Visit Program

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kennedy Ng ◽  
Gloria Yao Chi Leung ◽  
Angeline Jie-Yin Tey ◽  
Jia Quan Chaung ◽  
Si Min Lee ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The older persons consume disproportionately more healthcare resources than younger persons. Tri-Generational HomeCare (TriGen), a service-learning program, aimed to reduce hospital admission rates amongst older patients with frequent admissions. The authors evaluated the educational and patient outcomes of TriGen. Methods Teams consisting of healthcare undergraduates and lay volunteers – secondary school (SS) students - performed fortnightly home visits to patients over 6 months. Self-administered scales were used to evaluate the educational outcomes. Patients’ satisfaction and clinical outcomes were also assessed. Results 226 healthcare undergraduates and 359 SS students participated in the program from 2015 to 2018. Response rates were 80.1% and 62.4% respectively. 106 patients participated in TriGen. There was a statistically significant increase in Kogan’s Attitudes towards Old Persons scores pre- and post-intervention for healthcare undergraduates and SS students with a mean increase of 12.8 (95%CI: 9.5 – 16.2, p < 0.001) and 8.3 (95%CI: 6.2 – 10.3, p < 0.001) respectively. There was a statistically significant increase in Palmore FAQ score pre- and post-intervention for SS students. Most volunteers reported that TriGen was beneficial across all nine domains assessed. There was a statistically significant decrease in hospital admission rates (p = 0.006) and emergency department visits (p = 0.004) during the 6-month period before and after the program. 51 patients answered the patient feedback survey. Of this, more than 80% reported feeling less lonely and happier. Conclusion TriGen, a student-initiated, longitudinal, inter-generational service-learning program consisting of lay students and healthcare undergraduates can reduce ageism, develop soft skills, inculcate values amongst lay volunteers (SS students) and healthcare undergraduates. In addition, TriGen potentially reduces hospital admissions and emergency department visits, and loneliness amongst frequently admitted older patients.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kennedy Ng ◽  
Gloria Yao Chi Leung ◽  
Angeline Jie-Yin Tey ◽  
Jia Quan Chaung ◽  
Si Min Lee ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Older persons consume disproportionately more healthcare resources than younger persons. Tri-Generational HomeCare (TriGen), a service-learning program, aims to reduce hospital admission rates amongst older patients with frequent admissions. The authors evaluated the educational and patient outcomes of TriGen. Methods Teams consisting of healthcare undergraduates and secondary school (SS) students - performed fortnightly home visits to patients over 6 months. Self-administered scales were used to evaluate the educational outcomes in knowledge and attitudes towards the older people and nine domains of soft skills pre- and post-intervention. Patients’ reported satisfaction and clinical outcomes were also assessed. Results 226 healthcare undergraduates and 359 SS students participated in the program from 2015 to 2018. Response rates were 80.1% and 62.4% respectively. 106 patients participated in TriGen. There was a significant increase in Kogan’s Attitudes towards Old People Scale (KOP) scores for healthcare undergraduates and SS students with a mean increase of 12.8 (95%CI: 9.5 – 16.2, p < 0.001) and 8.3 (95%CI: 6.2 – 10.3, p < 0.001) respectively. There was a significant increase in Palmore Facts on Aging Quiz (PFAQ) score for SS students but not for healthcare undergraduates. Most volunteers reported that TriGen was beneficial across all nine domains assessed. There was also a significant decrease in hospital admission rates (p = 0.006) and emergency department visits (p = 0.004) during the 6-month period before and after the program. 51 patients answered the patient feedback survey. Of this, more than 80% reported feeling less lonely and happier. Conclusion TriGen, a student-initiated, longitudinal, inter-generational service-learning program consisting of SS students and healthcare undergraduates can reduce ageism, develop soft skills, inculcate values amongst SS students and healthcare undergraduates. In addition, TriGen potentially reduces hospital admissions and emergency department visits, and loneliness amongst frequently admitted older patients.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gang Luo ◽  
Michael D Johnson ◽  
Flory L Nkoy ◽  
Shan He ◽  
Bryan L Stone

BACKGROUND Bronchiolitis is the leading cause of hospitalization in children under 2 years of age. Each year in the United States, bronchiolitis results in 287,000 emergency department visits, 32%-40% of which end in hospitalization. Frequently, emergency department disposition decisions (to discharge or hospitalize) are made subjectively because of the lack of evidence and objective criteria for bronchiolitis management, leading to significant practice variation, wasted health care use, and suboptimal outcomes. At present, no operational definition of appropriate hospital admission for emergency department patients with bronchiolitis exists. Yet, such a definition is essential for assessing care quality and building a predictive model to guide and standardize disposition decisions. Our prior work provided a framework of such a definition using 2 concepts, one on safe versus unsafe discharge and another on necessary versus unnecessary hospitalization. OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to determine the 2 threshold values used in the 2 concepts, with 1 value per concept. METHODS Using Intermountain Healthcare data from 2005-2014, we examined distributions of several relevant attributes of emergency department visits by children under 2 years of age for bronchiolitis. Via a data-driven approach, we determined the 2 threshold values. RESULTS We completed the first operational definition of appropriate hospital admission for emergency department patients with bronchiolitis. Appropriate hospital admissions include actual admissions with exposure to major medical interventions for more than 6 hours, as well as actual emergency department discharges, followed by an emergency department return within 12 hours ending in admission for bronchiolitis. Based on the definition, 0.96% (221/23,125) of the emergency department discharges were deemed unsafe. Moreover, 14.36% (432/3008) of the hospital admissions from the emergency department were deemed unnecessary. CONCLUSIONS Our operational definition can define the prediction target for building a predictive model to guide and improve emergency department disposition decisions for bronchiolitis in the future.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. S332-S332
Author(s):  
Anisha Ganguly ◽  
Larry Brown ◽  
Deepak Agrawal ◽  
Kavita Bhavan

Abstract Background Self-administered outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (S-OPAT) has been established as a clinically safe and effective alternative to inpatient or outpatient extended-course intravenous antibiotics while reducing healthcare resource utilization. However, previous research has not confirmed that transferring patients from the hospital to home for treatment does not cause a compensatory increase in emergency department (ED) visits. We sought to validate S-OPAT clinical safety and healthcare costs associated with S-OPAT by confirming that S-OPAT does not increase ED utilization during treatment. Methods We conducted a before-after study of ED utilization among S-OPAT patients. We compared ED visits, hospital admissions resulting from ED visits, hospital admissions due to OPAT-related causes, and hospital charges associated with all ED visits 60 days before and after initiation of S-OPAT. A 60-day time frame was selected to effectively encompass the maximum treatment duration (8 weeks) for S-OPAT. Paired t-tests were used to compare the change in ED utilization before and after initiation of S-OPAT. Results Among our cohort of 944 S-OPAT patients, 430 patients visited the ED 60 days before or after starting treatment. Of the patients with ED visits, 69 were admitted to the hospital for OPAT-related causes and 228 incurred hospital charges from their visit. Initiation of S-OPAT was associated with a statistically significant reduction in total ED visits, all-cause hospital admission, OPAT-related hospital admission, and hospital charges (see Table 1). Conclusion Our review of ED utilization among S-OPAT patients demonstrates a reduction in multiple parameters of ED utilization with the initiation of S-OPAT treatment. Our findings confirm that S-OPAT does not yield an increase, but rather a decrease, in ED visits with the transfer of patients from hospital to home. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.


Circulation ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 143 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugenia Wong ◽  
Wayne D Rosamond ◽  
Mehul D Patel ◽  
Anna Waller

Introduction: Efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic brought sweeping social change, with stay-at-home orders and physical distancing mandates in 43 of 50 states by April 2020. Early on, isolated studies around the world described reduced hospital admissions. Reports from some US hospitals also described declines in catheterization laboratory activations, and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and stroke admissions. However, there have been few population-based analyses of emergency department (ED) visits to verify these initial reports and describe longer term impacts of the pandemic on care seeking behavior. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that AMI and stroke ED visits in North Carolina (NC) would decrease substantially after a statewide stay-at-home order was announced on March 27, 2020. Methods: We analyzed all ED visits from January 5 to August 28, 2020 using data collected by the NC Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiologic Collection Tool, a syndromic surveillance system that automatically gathers ED data in near-real time for all EDs in NC. Counts of AMI and stroke/transient ischemic attack (TIA) were ascertained using ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes. We compared weekly 2020 ED visit data before and after NC’s stay-at-home order, and to 2019 ED visit data. Results: Overall ED volume declined by 44% in the weeks before and after the stay-at-home order ( Figure ) while the prior year’s ED volume stayed steady at ~100,000 visits per week. From January 5 to March 28, there were 593 AMI and 791 stroke/TIA visits per week on average. By April 11, ED visits reached a nadir at 426 AMI and 543 stroke/TIA visits per week, representing a 28% and 31% decrease, respectively. Since June, AMI and stroke/TIA ED visits have rebounded slightly but have yet to reach pre-pandemic levels. Conclusions: We observed swift declines in AMI and stroke/TIA ED visits following NC’s stay-at-home order. These findings potentially reflect the avoidance of medical care due to fears of COVID-19 exposure and may eventually result in higher associated case fatality.


BMJ ◽  
2022 ◽  
pp. e067519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seilesh Kadambari ◽  
Raphael Goldacre ◽  
Eva Morris ◽  
Michael J Goldacre ◽  
Andrew J Pollard

AbstractObjectiveTo assess the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on hospital admission rates and mortality outcomes for childhood respiratory infections, severe invasive infections, and vaccine preventable disease in England.DesignPopulation based observational study of 19 common childhood respiratory, severe invasive, and vaccine preventable infections, comparing hospital admission rates and mortality outcomes before and after the onset of the pandemic in England.SettingHospital admission data from every NHS hospital in England from 1 March 2017 to 30 June 2021 with record linkage to national mortality data.PopulationChildren aged 0-14 years admitted to an NHS hospital with a selected childhood infection from 1 March 2017 to 30 June 2021.Main outcome measuresFor each infection, numbers of hospital admissions every month from 1 March 2017 to 30 June 2021, percentage changes in the number of hospital admissions before and after 1 March 2020, and adjusted odds ratios to compare 60 day case fatality outcomes before and after 1 March 2020.ResultsAfter 1 March 2020, substantial and sustained reductions in hospital admissions were found for all but one of the 19 infective conditions studied. Among the respiratory infections, the greatest percentage reductions were for influenza (mean annual number admitted between 1 March 2017 and 29 February 2020 was 5379 and number of children admitted from 1 March 2020 to 28 February 2021 was 304, 94% reduction, 95% confidence interval 89% to 97%), and bronchiolitis (from 51 655 to 9423, 82% reduction, 95% confidence interval 79% to 84%). Among the severe invasive infections, the greatest reduction was for meningitis (50% reduction, 47% to 52%). For the vaccine preventable infections, reductions ranged from 53% (32% to 68%) for mumps to 90% (80% to 95%) for measles. Reductions were seen across all demographic subgroups and in children with underlying comorbidities. Corresponding decreases were also found for the absolute numbers of 60 day case fatalities, although the proportion of children admitted for pneumonia who died within 60 days increased (age-sex adjusted odds ratio 1.71, 95% confidence interval 1.43 to 2.05). More recent data indicate that some respiratory infections increased to higher levels than usual after May 2021.ConclusionsDuring the covid-19 pandemic, a range of behavioural changes (adoption of non-pharmacological interventions) and societal strategies (school closures, lockdowns, and restricted travel) were used to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2, which also reduced admissions for common and severe childhood infections. Continued monitoring of these infections is required as social restrictions evolve.


CJEM ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (S1) ◽  
pp. S69
Author(s):  
A. Hendin ◽  
D. Eagles ◽  
V.R. Myers ◽  
I.G. Stiell

Introduction: Older patients are a high-risk population in the Emergency Department (ED) for poor outcomes after ED visit, including return presentation and hospital admission. Little is known however about outcomes in older patients identified as “low acuity” by triage. We aim to describe the characteristics, ED workup, disposition, and 14-day outcomes of ED patients 65 years and up who are triaged as low acuity and compare them to a younger cohort. Methods: This health records review was done in a Canadian tertiary care ED. Included patients received a Canadian Triage Acuity score (CTAS) of 4 or 5 and were either 65 years and up (“older” group), or 40-55 years (controls). Data collected included patient demographics, tests and services involved in ED, and disposition. Return ED visit and hospital admission rates at 14 days were tracked. Data were analyzed descriptively and chi-square testing conducted to assess for differences (p &lt; 0.05) between groups. A pre-planned stratified analysis of patients 65-74 years, 75-84, and 85 and older was conducted. Results: 350 patients (mean age 76.5, 56.6% female) were included in the older group and 150 in the control group (mean age 47.3, 55.3% female). Most patients presented with musculoskeletal or skin complaints (older cohort: 28.6% extremity pain/injury, 10% rash, 8.9% laceration, versus control 30% extremity pain/injury, 14.7% rash, 14.0% laceration) and were triaged to the ambulatory care area (88.6% elderly, 99.3% control). Older patients were significantly more likely than younger controls to be admitted on index visit (5.0% vs 0.3% admit rate, p=0.016). They had a trend towards increased re-presentation rates within 14 days (13.7% vs 8.7% control, p=0.11) and were more likely to be admitted on re-presentation (4.0% vs 0.7%, p=0.045). In sub-group analysis, very elderly patients (85 years and up, n=79) were more likely to be admitted (8.9%, p=0.003). Conclusion: Patients 65 years of age and older who present to the ED with issues labelled as “less acute” at triage are 16 times more likely to be admitted than younger controls. Patients 85 years and up are the primary drivers of this higher admit rate. This study characterizes “low acuity” elders presenting to ED and indicates these patients are high risk for re-presentation and admission within 14 days.


Author(s):  
Abdullah Aldamigh ◽  
Afaf Alnefisah ◽  
Abdulrahman Almutairi ◽  
Fatima Alturki ◽  
Suhailah Alhtlany ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. S333-S334
Author(s):  
So Lim Kim ◽  
Angela Everett ◽  
Susan J Rehm ◽  
Steven Gordon ◽  
Nabin Shrestha

Abstract Background Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) carries risk of vascular access complications, antimicrobial adverse effects, and worsening of infection. Both OPAT-related and unrelated events may lead to emergency department (ED) visits. The purpose of this study was to describe adverse events that result in ED visits and risk factors associated with ED visits during OPAT. Methods OPAT courses between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2016 at Cleveland Clinic were identified from the institution’s OPAT registry. ED visits within 30 days of OPAT initiation were reviewed. Reasons and potential risk factors for ED visits were sought in the medical record. Results Among 11,440 OPAT courses during the study period, 603 (5%) were associated with 1 or more ED visits within 30 days of OPAT initiation. Mean patient age was 58 years and 57% were males. 379 ED visits (49%) were OPAT-related; the most common visit reason was vascular access complication, which occurred in 211 (56%) of OPAT-related ED visits. The most common vascular access complications were occlusion and dislodgement, which occurred in 99 and 34 patients (47% and 16% of vascular access complications, respectively). In a multivariable logistic regression model, at least one prior ED visit in the preceding year (prior ED visit) was most strongly associated with one or more ED visits during an OPAT course (OR 2.96, 95% CI 2.38 – 3.71, p-value &lt; 0.001). Other significant factors were younger age (p 0.01), female sex (p 0.01), home county residence (P &lt; 0.001), and having a PICC (p 0.05). 549 ED visits (71%) resulted in discharge from the ED within 24 hours, 18 (2%) left against medical advice, 46 (6%) were observed up to 24 hours, and 150 ED visits (20%) led to hospital admission. Prior ED visit was not associated with hospital admission among patients who visited the ED during OPAT. Conclusion OPAT-related ED visits are most often due to vascular access complications, especially line occlusions. Patients with a prior ED visit in the preceding year have a 3-fold higher odds of at least one ED visit during OPAT compared with patients without a prior ED visit. A strategy of managing occlusions at home and a focus on patients with prior ED visits could potentially prevent a substantial proportion of OPAT-related ED visits. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S825-S826
Author(s):  
Thomas Lodise ◽  
Teena Chopra ◽  
Brian Nathanson ◽  
Katherine Sulham

Abstract Background There is an increase in hospital admissions for cUTI in the US despite apparent reductions in the severity of admissions. However, there are scant data on cUTI hospital admission rates from the emergency department (ED) stratified by age, infection severity, and presence of comorbidities. This study described US hospitalization patterns among adults who present to the ED with a cUTI. We sought to quantify the proportion of admissions that were potentially avoidable based on presence of sepsis and associated symtpoms as well as Charlston Comorbidity Index (CCI) scores. Methods A retrospective multi-center study using data from the Premier Healthcare Database (2013-18) was performed. Inclusion criteria: (1) age ≥ 18 years, (2) primary cUTI ED/inpatient discharge diagnosis, (3) positive blood or urine culture between index ED service days -5 to +2. Transfers from acute care facilities were excluded. Based on ICD-9/10 diagnosis codes present on admission, incidence of hospital admissions were stratified by age (≥ 65 years vs. &lt; 65 years), presence of sepsis (S), sepsis symptoms but no sepsis codes (SS) (e.g., fever, tachycardia, tachypnea, leukocytosis, etc.), and CCI. Results 187,789 patients met inclusion criteria. The mean (SD) age was 59.7 (21.9), 40.4% were male, 29.4% had sepsis, 16.7% had at least 1 SS symptom (but no S), and 53.9% had no evidence of S or SS. The median [IQR] CCI was 1 [0, 3]. 119,668 out of 187,789 (63.7%) were admitted to hospital. Among inpatients, median [IQR] length of stay (LOS) and total costs were 5 [3, 7] days and $7,956 [$4,834, $13,960] USD. Incidence of hospital admissions by age, presence of S/SS, and CCI score are shown in the Table. 18.9% of admissions (22,644/119,668) occurred in patients with no S/SS and a CCI ≤ 2. Their median [IQR] LOS and total costs were 3 [2, 5] days and $5,575 [$3,607, $9,133]. Incidence of Hospital Admission by Age, Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), Presence of Sepsis (S), and Presence of Sepsis Symptoms (SS) Conclusion Nearly 1 in 5 cUTI hospital admissions may be avoidable. Given the resources associated with the management of inpatients with cUTIs, these findings highlight the critical need for healthcare systems to develop well-defined criteria for hospital admission based on presence of comorbid conditions and infection severity. Preventing avoidable hospital admissions has the potential to save the healthcare system substantial costs. Disclosures Thomas Lodise, PharmD, PhD, Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Consultant) Teena Chopra, MD, MPH, Spero Therapeutics (Consultant, Advisor or Review Panel member) Brian Nathanson, PhD, Spero Therapeutics (Independent Contractor) Katherine Sulham, MPH, Spero Therapeutics (Independent Contractor)


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