National guidelines mandate identification and tailored management of patients living with frailty who attend the acute hospital setting. We describe using quality improvement (QI) techniques to embed a system that allowed identification of frailty in older patients attending the emergency department (ED), creation of a clinical pathway to facilitate comprehensive geriatric assessment and appropriate same-day discharge of suitable patients. Integration of Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) scoring within an electronic record system, a continuing programme of education and awareness, and dedicated project staff allows patients to be identified for an ambulatory frailty pathway. Our results show a sustained improvement over 9 months of the project, with 73% of patients over the age of 75 years presenting to ED by ambulance now receiving a CFS score. Over 300 patients have been identified, transferred to ambulatory care and treated via a new frailty pathway, with an admission rate for this cohort of 14%, compared with an overall admission rate of 50% for patients over 75 years. We report a decrease in overall ED admission of 1%. Analysis of patients discharged through this same-day pathway showed a 7-day ED reattendance rate of 15.1% and a 30-day readmission rate of 18.9%, which are comparable with current pathways. Consultant review estimated 87% of patients to have avoided a longer admission. Patient and staff satisfaction indicates this pathway to be feasible and acceptable to users. Our data suggest an ambulatory frailty pathway can deliver significant admission avoidance while maintaining low readmission rates. Similar schemes in other hospitals should consider using QI approaches to implementation of frailty pathways.
Malignant disease may be associated with a wide variety of musculoskeletal syndromes. Rarely the musculoskeletal system can be indirectly affected by paraneoplastic phenomena, such as carcinomatous polyarthritis (CP). The differential diagnosis for CP is broad and is often a diagnosis of exclusion. CP often presents similarly to other forms of inflammatory arthritis, and a detailed history and physical examination can often distinguish CP from other more common causes of polyarticular arthritis. However serological tests such as rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibody positivity, while rare, can be misleading. Clinical awareness and suspicion are paramount in achieving an accurate diagnosis and early detection of an occult neoplasm is critical for prompt management and therapy. We report two cases presenting with this unique clinical phenotype associated with paraneoplastic polyarthropathy and review the literature.
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