A description of an intermediate care service using routinely collected data.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Nursing Services
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Intermediate care services are crucial for alleviating acute hospital pressures.
• The heterogeneity of intermediate care necessitates robust methods for service description and comparison.
• Assessing the utility of routine data for monitoring intermediate care performance is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the potential of routine data sources for monitoring intermediate care service performance.
• To describe the characteristics and care programs of a newly established intermediate care nursing service.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 12-month routine community-based data (April 1998–March 1999).
• Examination of patient characteristics, episode details, and care program data.
• Assessment of data completeness, particularly for episode end-dates.

Main Results:

• The service provided out-of-hours community nursing care to 903 patients across 1071 episodes.
• Patient characteristics and episode start dates were complete; over 50% of episode end dates were missing.
• The service primarily supported individuals aged 65+ with conditions including genito-urinary, neoplasm, wound management, elderly care, gastro-intestinal, and locomotor issues, with most referrals from primary care.

Conclusions:

• Routine data offers a foundation for describing intermediate care services and enabling comparisons.
• A shift towards patient-centered data, consistent identifiers, and planned data linkage is needed.
• Current data limitations, particularly regarding outcomes, hinder comprehensive effectiveness measurement.