Development and evaluation of intermediate care

Intermediate care is being developed as part of the national strategy for older people in England and Wales to prevent their admission to hospital and facilitate early discharge. Evaluation of intermediate care is implicit within current policy directives. This project evaluated the client information across a number of intermediate care schemes within one National Health Service community trust for 3 months and disseminated the results to staff as part of a reflective workshop which also provided an opportunity for additional data collection. Rates of referral and acceptance on intermediate care were high for all the schemes except one, indicating reliable referral and inclusion criteria. Older people were the recipients of intermediate care with nearly half of them having experienced falls. A number of developments were identified by staff covering both current services and long-term strategy for intermediate care and indicating the importance of involving providers in the evaluation and development of services. Fall prevention initiatives and involvement of users and carers in the evaluation and development of intermediate care were also identified.