Home assessments in geriatrics revisited: an audit of a routine home visiting service.
Routine home visiting is a luxury not afforded to other medical specialties. The practice of routine home assessment visiting in geriatric medicine was evaluated in a prospective study of 110 consecutive referrals to determine whether; the response to general practitioners referrals could be predicted from the information given at the time of referral and; to identify where home visiting identified additional information of value in directing services more appropriately. Requests for admission were accurately predicted in 86-96% of cases by the visiting and a control doctor respectively. Additional information of value in directing services and patient management was gained from the home visit in 30% of admissions, 58% of day hospital cases and 80% of outpatients. It is possible to predict the outcome of home visits although implementation of such predictions without direct communication with general practitioners would result in a small number of unnecessary admissions and referrals to day hospital services.
Gray
C S
CS
Department of Geriatric Medicine, Longmore Hospital, Edinburgh.
Drewitt
D J
DJ
Lewis
S J
SJ
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003152:Community Health Nursing; D003631:Day Care, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006792:House Calls / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008485:Medical Audit / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data