[Hospital at home for acutely ill older]

[Hospital-at-home Integrated Care Programme tailored to older patients with disabling acute processes: identification of prognostic factors]

INTRODUCTION

Several authors have demonstrated the efficacy of different hospital-at-home strategies in older patients. The identification of prognostic factors is key for improving the targeting process of candidates.

METHODS

We performed an analysis of a cohort of older patients attended due to disabling health crises (medical, orthopaedics, or stroke) by a hospital-at-home scheme developed in an integrated care institution over a 5-year period. Main outcomes were: health crisis resolution (discharge to Primary Care); functional resolution (relative functional gain ≥35%), and their combined variable. A logistic regression analysis was performed, including clinical variables from Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment at admission to detect factors related to favourable outcomes.

RESULTS

A total of 484 patients were included. The main characteristics were: age 84.4 (6.7), female gender 69%, baseline Barthel score 74.2 (22.6), family-private caregiver/nursing home 82%/18%, referral from hospital wards/emergency department-community in 55%/45%. The main results (for selected processes medical/orthopaedics/stroke) were: health crisis resolution 71.7/87.5/77.6%; functional resolution 72.1/84.9/73.5%; favourable crisis resolution (health crisis resolution with functional resolution) 67.1/81.6/67.3%. Favourable crisis resolution was associated with [OR (95%CI)]: orthopaedic as main diagnosis [2.00 (1.22-3.29)], Barthel score at admission higher than 40 points [2.00 (1.18-3.38)], and the absence of pressure ulcers at admission [2.80 (1.68-4.65)].

CONCLUSIONS

Patients presenting with an orthopaedic diagnosis, not having severe disability at admission, and not having pressure ulcers at admission could obtain better results on favourable crisis resolution. Suffering cognitive impairment or delirium, or being institutionalised, was not found related with less favourable results.

Short-term prognostic factors in the elderly patients seen in emergency departments due to infections

OBJECTIVES

To analyse factors associated with short-term mortality in elderly patients seen in emergency departments (ED) for an episode of infectious disease.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A prospective, observational, multicentre, analytical study was carried out on patients aged 75years and older who were treated in the ED of one of the eight participating hospitals. An assessment was made of 26 independent variables that could influence mortality at 30days. They covered epidemiological, comorbidity, functional, clinical and analytical factors. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed.

RESULTS

The study included 488 consecutive patients, 92 (18.9%) of whom died within 30days of visiting the ED. Three variables were significantly associated with higher mortality: severe functional dependence, with Barthel index ≤60 [odds ratio (OR) 8,92; 95% confidence interval (CI): 4.98-15.98, P=.003], systolic blood pressure <90mmHg [OR 7.34; 95%CI: 4.39-12.26, P=.005] and serum lactate >4mmol/l [OR 21.14; 95%CI: 8.94-49.97, P=.001]. The area under the curve for the model was 0.971 (95%CI: 0.951-0.991; P<.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Several factors evaluated in an initial assessment in the ED, including the level of functional dependence, systolic blood pressure and, especially, serum lactate, were found to determine a poor short-term prognosis in the elderly patients who presented with an episode of an infectious disease.