Geriatric respite care--present practice and the potential for improvement.

A prospective Audit of patients admitted for geriatric respite care was undertaken. Information was obtained from patients, staff and carers for 125 consecutive admissions over a 20 week period. The 87 clients admitted had a mean age of 79.6 years and 83% had a high physical/mental dependency. In contrast to some previous studies mortality was very low (less than 2%). One hundred and nine (87%) admissions were discharged home. Respite admission bed use was classified as shared care (971 days, n = 19), planned respite (937 days, n = 50) and crisis respite (809 days, n = 18). The shared care and planned group did not show significant differences in patient dependency or carer profile. On a population basis, geriatric respite care was required on a bed per 1,000 population aged 75 and over. Patients viewed as inappropriate for geriatric care were most frequent in the crisis respite group, with the Geriatric Unit at times meeting shortfalls in other services. The sharing of key information between families/carers and community/hospital was, at times, deficient. The need for increased publicity about the service and for a carer support group was identified. Most families were satisfied with the care received but specific ways of improving the service were suggested.