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Screening elder cardiac patients to identify need for social work services
B Berkman1, S Millar, W Holmes
1Social Service Department, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston 02114.
Health & Social Work
|February 1, 1990
Summary
Current screening tools for posthospital care needs are inefficient. A new computerized screening method for elderly cardiac patients significantly reduced false positives from 65% to 26%, improving care planning.
Area of Science:
- Geriatric Medicine
- Health Services Research
- Nursing Informatics
Background:
- Existing screening methods for posthospital care needs in older adults exhibit low specificity, leading to a high false-positive rate (65%).
- This inefficiency burdens healthcare resources and potentially delays appropriate care for high-risk patients.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and evaluate a computerized screening mechanism for identifying elderly cardiac patients at high risk for posthospital care needs.
- To improve the accuracy and efficiency of posthospital care planning for geriatric patients.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the Medicus Nursing Productivity and Quality of Patient Care Classification System (NPAQ) as predictive factors.
- Developed a computerized model to analyze NPAQ data for identifying at-risk elderly cardiac patients.
Main Results:
- The computerized screening mechanism successfully reduced the false-positive screening rate from 65% to 26%.
- This indicates a significant improvement in the specificity of identifying patients requiring posthospital care.
Conclusions:
- Early and accurate identification of elderly cardiac patients needing posthospital care is feasible with a computerized approach.
- Improved screening efficiency can enhance social worker effectiveness, optimize resource allocation, and promote better patient recovery outcomes.