Early unplanned readmissions to social work of elderly patients: factors predicting who needs follow-up services

There are some elderly patients who receive social work services during an initial hospitalization and experience an early unplanned readmission, when they again are in need of social work assistance. This research identified factors which differentiated social work patients who were readmitted to the hospital within one month and were again referred to social work services from those who were not readmitted. Three factors were found to be predictive of readmission to social work: longer length of stay in the initial hospitalization; presence of barriers which complicated the social work service plan undertaken in the first admission; and provision of social work services in the initial admission which were limited to information and referral only.