A nurse-led rapid response service for frail older people: an assessment

This paper draws on data collected as part of a comprehensive evaluation of a nurse-led rapid response service (RRS) in South Yorkshire. It reviews the assessments of the service by the RRS team themselves and by other care professionals, drawing on their views about which older people (as differentiated by their health problems) it was appropriate to refer to the RRS, and more generally about the strengths and limitations of the service. The views were collected by administering a postal semi-structured questionnaire to 120 care professionals involved in and with the RRS. The findings indicate that the service's rapid response to the patient's needs and its follow-up care were seen by all groups as positive achievements. However, referrers and service providers had contrasting interpretations about the patient eligibility criteria and disagreed strongly about the problems to which the RRS could effectively respond. These differences were a major factor in the conflicts that developed around referrals and service delivery. The findings strongly suggest that it is essential for innovative services to develop clear and consensual patient eligibility criteria and for these to be widely understood by all the professionals that are involved.