Pre-admission Assessment of Elderly Applicants to Long-term Care

Malta medical journal

Joseph Dimech¹  Anthony Fiorini¹ 

关键词: admission;    assessment;    elderly;    long term care;   

DOI  :  

学科分类：医学（综合）

来源: University of Malta * Medical School

【 摘 要 】

Aim: to identify whether pre-admission assessment of elderly applicants could be an effective means of identifying actual need for long term care Methods: 105 applicants to long term care were assessed at source for suitability for admission. Assessment instruments used were OARS and CAPE. All subjects were followed up after 3 months to assess actual outcome. Findings: Assessment findings showed that of the study group (n=105), 22% could remain in the community, 21% could benefit from hospital care / rehabilitation and 57% required institutionalisation. Unmet need was identified in applicants in the community (n=40) for home help, day care, social worker, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and community nursing. Conclusion: Pre-admission assessment appropriately identifies the actual needs of applicants to long-term care and prevents inappropriate admission. One of the widely recognised problems related to institutionalisation is inappropriate admission to care 5, a phenomenon that has also been reported in Maltese studies6,7,8. Such inappropriate admission to care implies an improper use of beds, which are expensive to run, scarce to find 9, and could indicate an underutilisation of community support services. One of the reasons behind such misplacement to care is said to be inappropriate pre-admission assessment10. Contrary to postadmission assessment, intervention before admission could help to better identify the actual problems that are being faced by the client and carers11 , and therefore address unmet need for support services in the community 12. On the other hand admission to continuing care in association with dependency may be inappropriate if a remediable health condition is present9. Consequently, pre-admission assessment would also help to identify health problems that could benefit from specialised hospital care and rehabilitation13. The ultimate aim would be to leave the assessment team in the best possible position to recommend appropriate forms of care that would best identify the client`s capacity and preference to remain at home14.

【 授权许可】

Unknown