Care Pathways Projects
To estimate the burden of unscheduled care attendances from a care home setting
Unscheduled care attendances or visits to Emergency Departments (EDs) are very common in older people and the frequency tends to increase with increasing age and existing comorbidities. People living in care homes are twice as likely to attend EDs compared to people living in the community.
Recent studies have shown that unscheduled care attendances from a care home setting can often be futile and inefficient in terms of healthcare resource use. However, there is still considerable uncertainty as to which of these attendances or subsequent hospital admissions are avoidable.
Our study will be using various linked health datasets to identify attendance patterns to better understand patient pathways. We will also be estimating the costs associated with unscheduled care attendances. In addition, our analysis will help to assess the capabilities of these data, whether improvements in data collection would need to be made and how these data could be used further to answer questions around the use of specific healthcare services.