Care Transitions Program for High-Risk Frail Older Adults is Most Beneficial for Patients with Cognitive Impairment
BACKGROUND: Although posthospitalization care transitions programs (CTP) are highly diverse, their overall program thoroughness is most predictive of their success.
OBJECTIVE: To identify components of a successful homebased CTP and patient characteristics that are most predictive of reduced 30-day readmissions.
DESIGN: Retrospective cohort.
PATIENTS: A total of 315 community-dwelling, hospitalized, older adults (≥60 years) at high risk for readmission (Elder Risk Assessment score ≥16), discharged home over the period of January 1, 2011 to June 30, 2013.
SETTING: Midwest primary care practice in an integrated health system.
INTERVENTION: Enrollment in a CTP during acute hospitalization.
MEASUREMENTS: The primary outcome was all-cause readmission within 30 days of the first CTP evaluation. Logistic regression was used to examine independent variables, including patient demographics, comorbidities, number of medications, completion, and timing of program fidelity measures, and prior utilization of healthcare.
RESULTS: The overall 30-day readmission rate was 17.1%. The intensity of follow-up varied among patients, with 17.1% and 50.8% of the patients requiring one and ≥3 home visits, respectively, within 30 days. More than half (54.6%) required visits beyond 30 days. Compared with patients who were not readmitted, readmitted patients were less likely to exhibit cognitive impairment (29.6% vs 46.0%; P = .03) and were more likely to have high medication use (59.3% vs 44.4%; P = .047), more emergency department (ED; 0.8 vs 0.4; P = .03) and primary care visits (4.0 vs 3.0; P = .018), and longer cumulative time in the hospital (4.6 vs 2.5 days; P = .03) within 180 days of the index hospitalization. Multivariable analysis indicated that only cognitive impairment and previous ED visits were important predictors of readmission.
CONCLUSIONS: No single CTP component reliably predicted reduced readmission risk. Patients with cognitive impairment and polypharmacy derived the most benefit from the program.
© 2019 Society of Hospital Medicine
CONCLUSION
This study focused on a successful high-intensity CTP. Results showed that compared with patients without dementia, patients with dementia were more likely to avoid hospitalizations as a result of enrollment in the investigated CTP. This study, however, failed to identify specific programmatic components critical for the success of the CTP. These findings support the current hypothesis that multidisciplinary, multimodal, and highly intensive interventions are necessary to care for complex and multi-morbid patients. They also suggest that compared with cognitively functional patients, cognitively impaired patients with conservative goals of care may be more likely to avoid burdensome hospitalizations when provided with early intervention in their home.
Acknowledgments
B.T. conceived and designed the study, interpreted the data, drafted and provided final revisions to the manuscript. P.Y.T, N.D.S., and J.M.N obtained funding, contributed to the conception and design of the study, analysis, and interpretation of the data, and provided critical revisions to the manuscript. P.A.R., R.G.M, and G.J.H., contributed to the conception and design of the study, analysis, and interpretation of the data, and provided critical revisions to the manuscript. S.M.P. Assisted with data acquisition and interpretation, performed the data analysis, and drafted parts of the manuscript. C.Y.Y.C, L.J.H., A.L, A.C., L.B., and R.H. helped with methodologic questions and data interpretation, and provided critical revisions to the manuscript.
All authors read and approved the final manuscript and the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
We thank Donna Lawson, RN for her help with data abstraction and Annika Beck and Anna Jones in Mayo Clinic Biomedical Ethics Research Program for her help in preparing this manuscript for publication.
Disclosures
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Funding
This publication was supported by the Mayo Clinic, Robert D and Patricia E. Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery (B.T., R.H., R.G.M, L.J.H), by the Extramural Grant Program by Satellite Healthcare, a not-for-profit renal care provider (L.J.H., B.T.), and by the National Institute of Health (NIH) National Institute Of Diabetes And Digestive And Kidney Diseases grant K23 DK109134 (L.J.H.) K23DK114497 (RGM) and National Institute on Aging grant K23 AG051679 (B.T.). Additional support was provided by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences grant UL1 TR000135. Study contents are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NIH.
The sponsors had no role in the design, execution, or reporting of this study.
Prior Presentations
Part of this data was presented in poster format at the American Geriatrics Society meeting in Washington DC 2015.
