524 quality improvement project: incorporating comprehensive geriatric assessment into community hospital clerking

AbstractElderly patients transferred to community hospitals often have complex medical, social, psychological, functional and pharmacological backgrounds that require careful assessment in order to create and deliver a high quality, patient-centred care plan. Unfortunately, time pressures experienced by staff in acute hospitals can make Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) unfeasible for every patient. Moreover, junior members of the medical team may be unsure as to which aspects of a patient ’s background and presentation constitute important elements of a CGA. Failure to recognise and document pertinent issues can lead to prolonged admissions, disjointed care and failed discharges.Admission to a community hospital presents a convenient ‘checkpoint’ in the patient’s hospital jou rney at which to undertake a CGA. Recording the relevant information in an effective clerking proforma when the patient is admitted ensures that this information is displayed clearly and in a way that is accessible to all members of the multidisciplinary team. The pre-existing clerking proforma at A mersham Community Hospital omitted several important elements of CGA (such as examination of feet and gait, assessment of mood, FRAX-UK score, creation of a problem list etc.) The aim of this quality improvement project was to create a thorough, yet user-friendly and time-efficient clerking proforma which incorporated the important components of CGA.Using BGS guidance and NICE quality standard...
Source: Age and Ageing - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research