Which Aged Care inpatients are potentially suitable for community-based acute care?

To identify Aged Care inpatients potentially suitable for Acute/Post-Acute Care (APAC)-Aged Care, a new service offering community-based acute care as an alternative to hospital admission for frail older people.

Criteria were developed to identify suitable patients for APAC-Aged Care and applied to consecutive Aged Care inpatient admissions at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia, through retrospective chart review.

Only 5/90 reviewed patients were potentially suitable for APAC-Aged Care. All five were from Residential Aged Care Facilities. The median age of the 90 patients was 86 years; 30% lived in Residential Aged Care Facilities; 53% of patients were medically stable on presentation; 70% required investigations beyond a standard baseline set; 27% had either no new functional decline on presentation or adequate community support to manage this; 91% had allied health input and 41% had medical/surgical consultation.

APAC-Aged Care is a potentially suitable alternative to acute inpatient hospitalisation in a select minority of Aged Care patients.