The effectiveness of interventions to reduce adverse outcomes among older adults following Emergency Department discharge: umbrella review

Older adults experience of transition to the community from the emergency department: a qualitative evidence synthesis

AIM

Older adults comprise a growing proportion of Emergency Department (ED) attendees and are vulnerable to adverse outcomes following an ED visit including ED reattendance within 30 days. Interventions to reduce older adults' risk of adverse outcomes following an ED attendance are proliferating and often focus on improving the transition from the ED to the community. To optimise the effectiveness of interventions it is important to determine how older adults experience the transition from the ED to the community. This study aims to systematically review and synthesise qualitative studies reporting older adults' experiences of transition to the community from the ED.

METHODS

Six databases (Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, and Social Science Full Text) were searched in March 2022 and 2023. A seven-step approach to meta-ethnography, as described by Noblit and Hare, was used to synthesise findings across included studies. The methodological quality of the included studies was appraised using the 10-item Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) checklist for qualitative research. A study protocol was registered on PROSPERO (Registration: CRD42022287990).

FINDINGS

Ten studies were included, and synthesis led to the development of five themes. Unresolved symptoms reported by older adults on discharge impact their ability to manage at home (theme 1). Limited community services and unresolved symptoms drive early ED reattendance for some older adults (theme 2). Although older adults value practical support and assistance transporting home from the ED this is infrequently provided (theme 3). Accessible health information and interactions are important for understanding and self-managing health conditions on discharge from the ED (theme 4). Fragmented Care between ED and community is common, stressful and impacts on older adult's ability to manage health conditions (theme 5). A line of argument synthesis integrated these themes into one overarching concept; after an ED visit older adults often struggle to manage changed, complex, health and care needs at home, in the absence of comprehensive support and guidance.

DISCUSSION/ CONCLUSION

Key areas for consideration in future service and intervention development are identified in this study; ED healthcare providers should adapt their communication to the needs of older adults, provide accessible information and explicitly address expectations about symptom resolution during discharge planning. Concurrently, community health services need to be responsive to older adults' changed health and care needs after an ED visit to achieve care integration. Those developing transitional care interventions should consider older adults needs for integration of care, symptom management, clear communication and information from providers and desire to return to daily life.

Patient flow in emergency departments: a comprehensive umbrella review of solutions and challenges across the health system

BACKGROUND

Globally, emergency departments (EDs) are overcrowded and unable to meet an ever-increasing demand for care. The aim of this study is to comprehensively review and synthesise literature on potential solutions and challenges throughout the entire health system, focusing on ED patient flow.

METHODS

An umbrella review was conducted to comprehensively summarise and synthesise the available evidence from multiple research syntheses. A comprehensive search strategy was employed in four databases alongside government or organisational websites in March 2023. Gray literature and reports were also searched. Quality was assessed using the JBI critical appraisal checklist for systematic reviews and research syntheses. We summarised and classified findings using qualitative synthesis, the Population-Capacity-Process (PCP) model, and the input/throughput/output (I/T/O) model of ED patient flow and synthesised intervention outcomes based on the Quadruple Aim framework.

RESULTS

The search strategy yielded 1263 articles, of which 39 were included in the umbrella review. Patient flow interventions were categorised into human factors, management-organisation interventions, and infrastructure and mapped to the relevant component of the patient journey from pre-ED to post-ED interventions. Most interventions had mixed or quadruple nonsignificant outcomes. The majority of interventions for enhancing ED patient flow were primarily related to the 'within-ED' phase of the patient journey. Fewer interventions were identified for the 'post-ED' phase (acute inpatient transfer, subacute inpatient transfer, hospital at home, discharge home, or residential care) and the 'pre-ED' phase. The intervention outcomes were aligned with the aim (QAIM), which aims to improve patient care experience, enhance population health, optimise efficiency, and enhance staff satisfaction.

CONCLUSIONS

This study found that there was a wide range of interventions used to address patient flow, but the effectiveness of these interventions varied, and most interventions were focused on the ED. Interventions for the remainder of the patient journey were largely neglected. The metrics reported were mainly focused on efficiency measures rather than addressing all quadrants of the quadruple aim. Further research is needed to investigate and enhance the effectiveness of interventions outside the ED in improving ED patient flow. It is essential to develop interventions that relate to all three phases of patient flow: pre-ED, within-ED, and post-ED.

Increasing Follow Up With Primary Care Providers After Emergency Department Visits in Older Adults

PURPOSE

To increase follow up with the primary care team via telephone outreach within 3 days of emergency department (ED) discharge to schedule a follow-up visit within 14 days. Secondary aims included: identifying high utilizers of the ED (defined as more than three ED visits within 6 months), reinforcing discharge instructions from the ED via nursing education on telephone follow ups, and identifying the reasons patients used the ED.

METHOD

Baseline data were gathered retrospectively by reviewing charts of patients discharged from the ED. Charts were reviewed from a biweekly automated report, and RNs initiated follow-up phone calls to patients discharged from the ED, offering appointments and providing pertinent nursing education.

RESULTS

Primary care follow ups after ED discharges increased from 38% to 71% over 10 months with the new nurse-led workflow. Patients to whom the RN outreached to were more likely to attend their follow-up appointments. However, a 14-day follow-up appointment with the primary care provider (PCP) showed no significant difference in ED revisits or hospital admissions.

CONCLUSION

Follow up after ED discharge led to increased coordination of care. Nurses provided education about chronic conditions and reiterated discharge instructions that might have been unclear to patients in the ED. Further studies are needed to analyze the effect of follow up with the PCP on ED utilization and hospital admissions. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 50(3), 33-39.].

Strategies for improving ED-related outcomes of older adults who seek care in emergency departments: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Despite constituting 14% of the general population, older adults make up almost a quarter of all emergency department (ED) visits. These visits often do not adequately address patient needs, with nearly 80% of older patients discharged from the ED carrying at least one unattended health concern. Many interventions have been implemented and tested in the ED to care for older adults, which have not been recently synthesized.

METHODS

A systematic review was conducted to identify interventions initiated in the ED to address the needs of older adults. Embase, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane CENTRAL, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and grey literature were searched from January 2013 to January 18, 2023. Comparative studies assessing interventions for older adults in the ED were included. The quality of controlled trials was assessed with the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials, and the quality of observational studies was assessed with the risk of bias in non-randomized studies of interventions tool. Due to heterogeneity, meta-analysis was not possible.

RESULTS

Sixteen studies were included, assessing 12 different types of interventions. Overall study quality was low to moderate: 10 studies had a high risk of bias, 5 had a moderate risk of bias, and only 1 had a low risk of bias. Follow-up telephone calls, referrals, geriatric assessment, pharmacist-led interventions, physical therapy services, care plans, education, case management, home visits, care transition interventions, a geriatric ED, and care coordination were assessed, many of which were combined to create multi-faceted interventions. Care coordination with additional support and early assessment and intervention were the only two interventions that consistently reported improved outcomes. Most studies did not report significant improvements in ED revisits, hospitalization, time spent in the ED, costs, or outpatient utilization. Two studies reported on patient perspectives.

CONCLUSION

Few interventions demonstrate promise in reducing ED revisits for older adults, and this review identified significant gaps in understanding other outcomes, patient perspectives, and the effectiveness in addressing underlying health needs. This could suggest, therefore, that most revisits in this population are unavoidable manifestations of frailty and disease trajectory. Efforts to improve older patients' needs should focus on interventions initiated outside the ED.

Emergency department visits in Parkinson's disease: The impact of comorbid conditions

INTRODUCTION

Older adults have complex, often overlapping, medical conditions requiring careful management that may lead to increased emergency department usage compared to younger adults. Parkinson's disease (PD), a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by distinct motor and nonmotor features, frequently occurs with additional comorbid disease. Classifying comorbid conditions into clinical subgroups allows for further understanding of the heterogeneity in outcomes in patients with PD. The current study examines the reasons for emergency department (ED) visits in a cohort of patients with PD and identifies comorbidities that are potential risk factors for specific ED presenting conditions.

METHODS

Using data from Optum's de-identified Integrated Claims-Clinical dataset years 2010-2018, patients with PD were identified based on ICD-9/10 diagnosis codes. We identified all ED visits occurring after the first observed diagnosis code for PD. Comorbid conditions were classified using the AHRQ Clinical Classification Software (CCS). We classified patients using Latent Class Analysis (LCA) and conducted multiple logistic regression models with the outcome of reason-for-visit to examine the associations with comorbidity-profile class, patient demographics, and socio-economic characteristics.

RESULTS

The most common reasons for ED admission were injuries such as fractures and contusions, diseases of the circulatory system, and general signs and symptoms, including abdominal pain, malaise, and fatigue. Comorbid medical conditions often observed in this patient population include depression, diabetes mellitus, and chronic pulmonary disease. Patients in the "Poorest Health" classification of the LCA had greater odds for ED admission for diseases related to the gastrointestinal system, musculoskeletal system, and injury/poisoning categories and reduced odds for admission for diseases of the circulatory system.

DISCUSSION

Patients with PD who present to the emergency department with injuries are more likely to be in poor health overall with a high comorbidity burden. Clarifying the complex medical needs of patients with PD is the first step to further individualize care, which may reduce ED visits in this population, improve quality of life, and lessen the footprint on the healthcare system.

Effectiveness of a home health monitoring and education program for complex chronic patients, led by primary care nurses

Background

The challenge of chronicity has led developed countries to design strategies to respond to the new needs of complex chronic patients (CCP). There is evidence supporting better beneficial effects and more efficient care for CCP when home-base care programs are provided by Primary Health Care professionals. The main objective of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of a nursing intervention program of home visits for CCP analyzing the use of health services in terms of hospital admissions, emergency care unit visits, and mortality rate.

Methods

A quasi-experimental study was designed to retrospectively evaluate the effectiveness of a 3-year proactive, individualized nursing intervention in improving health outcomes measured by health service utilization (hospitalization, emergency care, and nursing home visits) in these patients. Of the 344 complex chronic patients participating in the study, 93 were assigned to the intervention group (IG) and 251 to the control group (CG).

Results

Along the period of study, the number of home visits in the IG almost tripled in relation to the CG (14.29 ± 4.49 vs. 4.17 ± 2.68, p < 0.001). Admissions in the first and second year of the study period were lower in the intervention group p = 0.002 and p < 0.001 respectively. All the participants in the control group were admitted at least once during the study period. In contrast, 29.0% of the participants in the intervention group never had a hospital admission during the 3-years study period. The number of ED visits to the emergency department was significantly lower in the IG during the 3 years of the study periods. The cumulative number of emergency visits in the IG was half that in the CG (5.66 ± 4. vs. 11.11 ± 4.45, p < 0.001, Cohen'd,1.53). A total of 35.5% of the participants in the intervention group visited the emergency department on three or fewer occasions compared to 98% of the subjects in the control group who visited the emergency department on more than six occasions (p < 0.001). The 3-year overall mortality rate was 23.5% in the control group and 21.6% in the nursing home visit program. These differences were not statistically significant.

Conclusion

The program demonstrated its effectiveness in reduction of hospital admissions and visits to the emergency department. The program had no impact on mortality rate. This program of home visits reinforces the role of primary care nurses in advanced competencies in chronicity.

Nursing Sensitive Outcomes evaluation in the Emergency Department: An Umbrella Review

Objective

The aim of this review was to identify reported nursing-sensitive outcomes in the Emergency Department to date.

Methods

An Umbrella review was conducted. Four databases, CINAHL, Pubmed, Web of Science and Scopus, were searched from inception until October 2022. MeSH terms were: "nursing", "sensitivity and specificity", "emergency service, hospital", "nursing care". Two reviewers independently screened studies against the inclusion criteria for eligibility, extracted data and assessed study quality with the SIGN tool. Results of the included studies were summarized and described in themes for narrative analysis. The study was enrolled in the PROSPERO registry (CRD42022376941) and PRISMA guidelines were followed.

Results

The search strategy yielded 2289 records. After duplicate removal, title, abstract and full-text eligibility screening, nine systematic reviews were included in the review. A total of 35 nursing-sensitive outcomes were reported. The most described outcomes were waiting times, patient satisfaction and time to treatment. The less measured were mortality, left without being seen and physical function. Synthesizing nursing-sensitive outcomes in themes for reporting, the most measured outcomes were within the safety domain (n=20), followed by the clinical (n=9), perceptual (n=5) and the least explored functional domain (n=1).

Conclusion

Nursing sensitive outcomes research in emergency nursing practice is a conceptual challenge still in its early stage. Several nursing-sensitive outcomes were identified in this review that can evaluate the contribution of emergency department nursing care to patient outcomes. Further research is required to explore patient outcomes sensitive to emergency nursing care.

A Physiotherapy-Led Transition to Home Intervention for Older Adults Following Emergency Department Discharge: A Pilot Feasibility Randomised Controlled Trial (ED PLUS)

Background

Older adults frequently attend the emergency department (ED) and experience high rates of subsequent adverse outcomes including functional decline, ED re-presentation and unplanned hospital admission. The development of effective interventions to prevent such outcomes is a key priority for research and service provision. Our aim was to evaluate the feasibility of a physiotherapy-led integrated care intervention for older adults discharged from the ED (ED PLUS).

Patients and Methods

Older adults presenting to the ED of a university teaching hospital with undifferentiated medical complaints and discharged within 72 hours were computer randomised in a ratio of 1:1:1 to deliver usual care, Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) in the ED, or ED PLUS. ED PLUS is an evidence-based and stakeholder-informed intervention to bridge the care transition between the ED and community by initiating a CGA in the ED and implementing a six-week, multi-component, self-management programme in the patient's home. Feasibility and acceptability were assessed quantitatively and qualitatively. All clinical and process outcomes were assessed by a research nurse blinded to group allocation. Data analyses were primarily descriptive.

Results

Twenty-nine participants were recruited indicating a 67% recruitment rate. At 6 months, there was 100% retention in the usual care group, 88% in the CGA group and 90% in the ED PLUS group. ED PLUS participants expressed positive feedback, and there was a trend towards improved function and quality of life and less ED revisits and unscheduled hospitalisations in the ED PLUS group.

Conclusion

ED PLUS bridges the transition of care between the index visit to the ED and the community and is feasible using systematic recruitment strategies. Despite recruitment challenges in the context of COVID-19, the intervention was successfully delivered and well received by participants. There was a lower incidence of functional decline and improved quality of life in the ED PLUS group.

Trial Registration

The trial was registered in Clinical Trials Protocols and Results System as of 21st July 2021, with registration number NCT04983602.

Effectiveness of interventions to address different types of vulnerabilities in community-dwelling older adults: An umbrella review

Background

Frailty, social isolation, loneliness, and poverty may render older adults vulnerable to social or health stressors. It is imperative to identify effective interventions to address them especially in the context of COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective

To identify effective community-based interventions to address frailty, social isolation, loneliness, and poverty among community-dwelling older adults.

Design

Umbrella review.

Data Source

We systematically searched PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane CENTRAL, EBM-Reviews, CINAHL via EBSCO, and APA PsycInfo via Ovid from January 2009 to December 2022.

Eligibility Criteria

We included systematic reviews or quantitative reviews of non-pharmacologic interventions targeting community-dwelling older adults.

Data Selection Extraction and Management

Two review authors independently screened the titles and abstracts, performed data extraction and appraised the methodological quality of the reviews. We used a narrative synthesis approach to summarize and interpret the findings. We assessed the methodological quality of the studies using AMSTAR 2.0 tool.

Results

We identified 27 reviews incorporating 372 unique primary studies that met our inclusion criteria. Ten of the reviews included studies conducted in low-middle-income countries. Twelve reviews (46%, 12/26) included interventions that addressed frailty. Seventeen reviews (65%, 17/26) included interventions that addressed either social isolation or loneliness. Eighteen reviews included studies with single component interventions, while 23 reviews included studies with multi-component interventions. Interventions including protein supplementation combined with physical activity may improve outcomes including frailty status, grip strength, and body weight. Physical activity alone or in combination with diet may prevent frailty. Additionally, physical activity may improve social functioning and interventions using digital technologies may decrease social isolation and loneliness. We did not find any review of interventions addressing poverty among older adults. We also noted that few reviews addressed multiple vulnerabilities within the same study, specifically addressed vulnerability among ethnic and sexual minority groups, or examined interventions that engaged communities and adapted programs to local needs.

Conclusion

Evidence from reviews support diets, physical activity, and digital technologies to improve frailty, social isolation or loneliness. However, interventions examined were primarily conducted under optimal conditions. There is a need for further interventions in community settings and conducted under real world settings in older adults living with multiple vulnerabilities.

Lost in transition? Community residential facility staff and stakeholder perspectives on previously incarcerated older adults' transitions into long-term care

BACKGROUND

Establishing an effective continuum of care is a pivotal part of providing support for older populations. In contemporary practice; however, a subset of older adults experience delayed entry and/or are denied access to appropriate care. While previously incarcerated older adults often face barriers to accessing health care services to support community reintegration, there has been limited research on their transitions into long-term care. Exploring these transitions, we aim to highlight the challenges of securing long-term care services for previously incarcerated older adults and shed light on the contextual landscape that reinforces the inequitable care of marginalized older populations across the care continuum.

METHODS

We performed a case study of a Community Residential Facility (CRF) for previously incarcerated older adults which leverages best practices in transitional care interventions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with CRF staff and community stakeholders to determine the challenges and barriers of this population when reintegrating back into the community. A secondary thematic analysis was conducted to specifically examine the challenges of accessing long-term care. A code manual representing the project themes (e.g., access to care, long-term care, inequitable experiences) was tested and revised, following an iterative collaborative qualitative analysis (ICQA) process.

RESULTS

The findings indicate that previously incarcerated older adults experience delayed access and/or are denied entry into long-term care due to stigma and a culture of risk that overshadow the admissions process. These circumstances combined with few available long-term care options and the prominence of complex populations already in long-term care contribute to the inequitable access barriers of previously incarcerated older adults seeking entry into long-term care.

CONCLUSIONS

We emphasize the many strengths of utilizing transitional care interventions to support previously incarcerated older adults as they transition into long-term care including: 1) education & training, 2) advocacy, and 3) a shared responsibility of care. On the other hand, we underscore that more work is needed to redress the layered bureaucracy of long-term care admissions processes, the lack of long-term care options and the barriers imposed by restrictive long-term care eligibility criteria that sustain the inequitable care of marginalized older populations.