Impact of involvement of relatives in early home visits by a hospital-led geriatric team

To evaluate whether the involvement of relatives in home visits by a geriatric team post-discharge is associated with unplanned readmissions in severely frail patients living alone.

A quality improvement project evaluating outcomes from routine care of patients who were severely frail, 65+ years, living alone, and visited at home by a geriatric team after discharge from acute hospital admission. We compared patients who did and did not have relatives attending the visit. Data were analyzed by logistic regression.

Of 437 patients with a mean age of 85.0 (±7.8) years 73% had severe comorbidity, 68% had a low functional ability, and 100 patients (23%) had relatives attending. Attendance of relatives was associated with a lower unplanned 30-day readmission rate (10% vs. 18%, adjusted odds ratio: 0.48 (0.23-1.00) p=0.05).

Results highlights the importance of involvement of relatives in care planning in the severely frail older patients living alone.