Do Community Hospitals Reduce the Use of District General Hospital Inpatient beds?

Analysis of the profile, characteristics, patient experience and community value of community hospitals: a multimethod study

Background

Community hospitals have been part of England’s health-care landscape since the mid-nineteenth century. Evidence on them has not kept pace with their development.

Aim

To provide a comprehensive analysis of the profile, characteristics, patient experience and community value of community hospitals.

Design

A multimethod study with three phases. Phase 1 involved national mapping and the construction of a new database of community hospitals through data set reconciliation and verification. Phase 2 involved nine case studies, including interviews and focus groups with patients (n = 60), carers (n = 28), staff (n = 132), volunteers (n = 68), community stakeholders (n = 74) and managers and commissioners (n = 9). Phase 3 involved analysis of Charity Commission data on voluntary support.

Setting

Community hospitals in England.

Results

The study identified 296 community hospitals with beds in England. Typically, the hospitals were small (< 30 beds), in rural communities, led by doctors/general practitioners (GPs) and nurses, without 24/7 on-site medical cover and provided step-down and step-up inpatient care, with an average length of stay of < 30 days and a variable range of intermediate care services. Key to patients’ and carers’ experiences of community hospitals was their closeness to ‘home’ through their physical location, environment and atmosphere and the relationships that they support; their provision of personalised, holistic care; and their role in supporting patients through difficult psychological transitions. Communities engage with and support their hospitals through giving time (average 24 volunteers), raising money (median voluntary income £15,632), providing services (voluntary and community groups) and giving voice (e.g. taking part in communication and consultation). This can contribute to hospital utilisation and sustainability, patient experience, staff morale and volunteer well-being. Engagement varies between and within communities and over time. Community hospitals are important community assets, representing direct and indirect value: instrumental (e.g. health care), economic (e.g. employment), human (e.g. skills development), social (e.g. networks), cultural (e.g. identity and belonging) and symbolic (e.g. vitality and security). Value varies depending on place and time.

Limitations

There were limitations to the secondary data available for mapping community hospitals and tracking charitable funds and to the sample of case study respondents, which concentrated on people with a connection to the hospitals.

Conclusions

Community hospitals are diverse but are united by a set of common characteristics. Patients and carers experience community hospitals as qualitatively different from other settings. Their accounts highlight the importance of considering the functional, interpersonal, social and psychological dimensions of experience. Community hospitals are highly valued by their local communities, as demonstrated through their active involvement as volunteers and donors. Community hospitals enable the provision of local intermediate care services, delivered through an embedded, relational model of care, which generates deep feelings of reassurance. However, current developments may undermine this, including the withdrawal of GPs, shifts towards step-down care for non-local patients and changing configurations of services, providers and ownership.

Future work

Comparative studies of patient experience in different settings; longitudinal studies of community support and value; studies into the implications of changes in community hospital function, GP involvement, provider-mix and ownership; and international comparative studies could all be undertaken.

Funding

The National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme.

Post-acute care for older people in community hospitals--a cost-effectiveness analysis within a multi-centre randomised controlled trial

OBJECTIVES

to compare the cost effectiveness of post-acute care for older people provided in community hospitals with general hospital care.

DESIGN

cost-effectiveness study embedded within a randomised controlled trial.

SETTING

seven community hospitals and five general hospitals at five centres in the midlands and north of England.

PARTICIPANTS

490 patients needing rehabilitation following hospital admission with an acute illness.

INTERVENTION

multidisciplinary team care for older people in community hospitals.

MEASUREMENTS

EuroQol EQ-5D scores transformed into quality-adjusted life years; health and social service costs during the 6-month period following randomisation.

RESULTS

there was a non-significant difference between the community hospital and general hospital groups for changes in quality-adjusted life-year values from baseline to 6 months (mean difference 0.048; 95% confidence interval -0.028 to 0.123; P = 0.214). Resource use was similar for both groups. The mean (standard deviation) costs per patient for health and social services resources used were comparable for both groups: community hospital group 8,946 pounds ( 6,514 pounds); general hospital group 8,226 pounds ( 7,453 pounds). These findings were robust to sensitivity analyses. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio estimate was 16,324 pounds per quality-adjusted life year. A cost effectiveness acceptability curve suggests that if decision makers' willingness to pay per quality-adjusted life year was 10,000 pounds, then community hospital care was effective in 47% of cases, and this increased to only 50% if the threshold willingness to pay was raised to 30,000 pounds.

CONCLUSIONS

the cost effectiveness of post-acute rehabilitation for older people was similar in community hospitals and general hospitals.

Community hospitals--the place of local service provision in a modernising NHS: an integrative thematic literature review

Background

Recent developments within the United Kingdom's (UK) health care system have re-awakened interest in community hospitals (CHs) and their role in the provision of health care. This integrative literature review sought to identify and assess the current evidence base for CHs.

Methods

A range of electronic reference databases were searched from January 1984 to either December 2004 or February 2005: Medline, Embase, Web of Knowledge, BNI, CINAHL, HMIC, ASSIA, PsychInfo, SIGLE, Dissertation Abstracts, Cochrane Library, Kings Fund website, using both keywords and text words. Thematic analysis identified recurrent themes across the literature; narrative analyses were written for each theme, identifying unifying concepts and discrepant issues.

Results

The search strategy identified over 16,000 international references. We included papers of any study design focussing on hospitals in which care was led principally by general practitioners or nurses. Papers from developing countries were excluded. A review of titles revealed 641 potentially relevant references; abstract appraisal identified 161 references for review. During data extraction, a further 48 papers were excluded, leaving 113 papers in the final review. The most common methodological approaches were cross-sectional/descriptive studies, commentaries and expert opinion. There were few experimental studies, systematic reviews, economic studies or studies that reported on longer-term outcomes. The key themes identified were origin and location of CHs; their place in the continuum of care; services provided; effectiveness, efficiency and equity of CHs; and views of patients and staff.

In general, there was a lack of robust evidence for the role of CHs, which is partly due to the ad hoc nature of their development and lack of clear strategic vision for their future. Evidence for the effectiveness and efficiency of the services provided was limited. Most people admitted to CHs appeared to be older, suggesting that admittance to CHs was age-related rather than condition-related.

Conclusion

Overall the literature surveyed was long on opinion and short of robust studies on CHs. While lack of evidence on CHs does not imply lack of effect, there is an urgent need to develop a research agenda that addresses the key issues of health care delivery in the CH setting.

A cost study of a general practitioner hospital in the Netherlands

OBJECTIVE

To perform a cost study of the first general practitioner (GP) hospital in the Netherlands.

METHODS

We conducted a cost study in a GP hospital in the Netherlands. Data on healthcare utilisation from 218 patients were collected for a period of one year. The costs of admission to the GP hospital were compared with the expected costs of the alternative mode of care. In the GP hospital three types of bed categories were distinguished: GP beds (admission and discharge by GPs, n=131), rehabilitation beds (recovery from hospital surgery, n=62) and nursing home beds (hospital patients awaiting a vacancy in a nursing home, n=25). GPs were interviewed to indicate the best alternative form of healthcare for the GP bed patients in the absence of a GP hospital (dichotomised for this study into "hospital" or "home care"). For the "rehabilitation" and "nursing home" patients the alternative care mode was admission to a hospital.

RESULTS

The mean length of stay was 15 days for the GP beds, 31 days for the rehabilitation beds and 90 days for the nursing home beds. For the GP bed patients the costs were 2533 euros per admission compared with 3792 euros for hospital stay. For the group of GP bed patients for whom "home care" was the best alternative, the costs were 2494 euros for GP hospital days compared with 2814euros , the average cost for home care of patients of 65 years and older. For rehabilitation patients the costs per patient were 4744 euros compared with 8041 euros in a hospital. For patients waiting for admission to a nursing home, these costs were 13,143 euros and 22,670 euros respectively.

CONCLUSION

The GP hospital might be a cost-saving alternative for elderly patients in need of intermediate medical and nursing care between hospital and home care. Further research on the cost-effectiveness of the GP hospital compared with home care and nursing home care is needed.

The first general practitioner hospital in The Netherlands: towards a new form of integrated care?

OBJECTIVE

To describe the types of patients admitted to the first Dutch general practitioner (GP) hospital, their health-related quality of life and its substitute function.

DESIGN

A prospective observational study.

SETTING

The remaining 20-bed ward of a former district general hospital west of Amsterdam; a region with 62000 inhabitants and 26 GPs.

SUBJECTS

All patients admitted during the 12 months between 1 June 1999 and 1 June 2000.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Patients' health-related quality of life (Medical Outcome Study 36-item Short Form Health Survey, Groningen Activities Restriction Scale), GPs assessments of severity of illness (DUSOI/WONCA Severity of Illness Checklist) and alternative modes of care.

RESULTS

In total, 218 admissions were recorded divided into 3 bed categories: GP beds (n = 131), rehabilitation beds (n = 62) and nursing home beds (n = 25). The mean age of all patients was 76 years. Main reasons for admission were immobilization due to trauma at home (GP beds), rehabilitation from surgery (rehabilitation beds) and stroke (nursing home beds). Overall, patients showed a poor health-related quality of life on admission. If the GP beds had not been available, the GPs estimated that the admissions would have been almost equally divided among home care, nursing home and hospital care. The severity of the diagnosis on admission of the 'hospital-care group' appeared to be significantly higher than the other care groups.

CONCLUSION

The GP hospital appears to provide a valuable alternative to home care, nursing home care and hospital care, especially for elderly patients with a poor health-related quality of life who are in need of short medical and nursing care.

Do market-level hospital and physician resources affect small area variation in hospital use?

This study evaluates the effect of market-level physician and hospital resources on hospital use. It is anticipated that higher hospital discharges are associated with (1) greater hospital and physician resources, (2) more differentiated hospital and physician resources, and (3) higher levels of teaching intensity in the community. Data on 14 modified diagnostically related groups (DRGs) and 58 hospital market communities in Michigan are analyzed during a 7-year period. Findings indicate that physician resources, hospital resources, differentiation of hospital and physician resources, and teaching intensity contribute only modestly to discharges, holding constant the socioeconomic attributes of the community and adjusting for the variation in hospital use over time. With the inclusion of hospital and physician resource variables, socioeconomic factors remain important determinants of the variation across market communities. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for health care organizations, managed care programs, and cost control efforts in general.