Is Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment Admission Avoidance Hospital at Home an Alternative to Hospital Admission for Older Persons? : A Randomized Trial.

BACKGROUND

Delivering hospital-level care with comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) in the home is one approach to deal with the increased demand for bed-based hospital care, but clinical effectiveness is uncertain.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the clinical effectiveness of admission avoidance hospital at home (HAH) with CGA for older persons.

DESIGN

Multisite randomized trial. (ISRCTN registry number: ISRCTN60477865).

SETTING

9 hospital and community sites in the United Kingdom.

PATIENTS

1055 older persons who were medically unwell, were physiologically stable, and were referred for a hospital admission.

INTERVENTION

Admission avoidance HAH with CGA versus hospital admission with CGA when available using 2:1 randomization.

MEASUREMENTS

The primary outcome of living at home was measured at 6 months. Secondary outcomes were new admission to long-term residential care, death, health status, delirium, and patient satisfaction.

RESULTS

Participants had a mean age of 83.3 years (SD, 7.0). At 6-month follow-up, 528 of 672 (78.6%) participants in the CGA HAH group versus 247 of 328 (75.3%) participants in the hospital group were living at home (relative risk [RR], 1.05 [95% CI, 0.95 to 1.15]; = 0.36); 114 of 673 (16.9%) versus 58 of 328 (17.7%) had died (RR, 0.98 [CI, 0.65 to 1.47]; = 0.92); and 37 of 646 (5.7%) versus 27 of 311 (8.7%) were in long-term residential care (RR, 0.58 [CI, 0.45 to 0.76]; < 0.001).

LIMITATION

The findings are most applicable to older persons referred from a hospital short-stay acute medical assessment unit; episodes of delirium may have been undetected.

CONCLUSION

Admission avoidance HAH with CGA led to similar outcomes as hospital admission in the proportion of older persons living at home as well as a decrease in admissions to long-term residential care at 6 months. This type of service can provide an alternative to hospitalization for selected older persons.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE

The National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research Programme (12/209/66).