Does a community based recovery service reduce inpatient bed days?

Increasing options for the delivery of community-based care may be one way to reduce inpatient bed pressures. This study set out to examine the effect of community-based step up/step down (SUSD) care on hospital usage for service users with multi-service usage.

A retrospective audit was undertaken of the medical records of all individuals admitted to a SUSD unit over a 2-year period, calculating inpatient bed days for the 12 months prior to, and the 12 months after, the SUSD admission.

There was a statistically nonsignificant decrease in bed days in the 12 months following admission.

It is possible that inpatient bed day reduction may not be an appropriate outcome measure for a service built on principles of personal recovery. How to translate recovery-outcomes to justifiable financial benefits for services requires further consideration and alignment of values with reporting measures.