title: Winter admissions. Combination therapy.
abstract: Employing an extra social worker at a 600-bed acute hospital over three winter months (January to March 1997) and extending the opening hours of the medical assessment unit reduced delayed discharges. The time from a patient being allocated to a social worker to community care being provided fell from 16.6 to 13.8 days. The package of measures, which included employing a locum registrar in the medical assessment unit and extra nurses, released several hundred bed days. The project has been extended this winter.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine for the Elderly Directorate, Southend Hospital Trust, UK.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: China
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D003152:Community Health Nursing; D004739:England; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006746:Hospital Bed Capacity, 500 and over; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006801:Humans; D010351:Patient Discharge; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012621:Seasons; D012948:Social Work Department, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013996:Time and Motion Studies; D000078329:Workforce