A new tool to measure acuity in the community: a case study

Abstract

The provision of acute healthcare within patients own home (i.e. hospital in the home) is an important method of providing individualised patient-centred care that reduces the need for acute hospital admissions and enables early hospital discharge for appropriate patient groups. The Hospital in the Home (HitH) model of care ensures that this approach maximises patient safety and limits potential risk for patients. As HitH services have seen record numbers of patient referrals in the past 2 years, there is now a greater need to measure and understand the acuity and dependency levels of the caseload. Through an expert clinician development process at one NHS trust, aspects of procedural complexity, interdisciplinary working, risk stratification and comorbidities were used to quantify acuity and dependency. This paper uses a case study approach to present a new method of measuring this important concept.

Patients' and caregivers' perceptions of the quality of hospital‐at‐home service: A scoping review

“…Therefore, appropriate and thorough assessment of patients, including addressing complex and acute care needs, is critical in patients receiving HaH services (Baker et al, 2021). Other important aspects are coordinating the content of care protocols and the arrangement of service providers to ensure clinical stability (Baker et al, 2021;Brody et al, 2019). Communicate with patients and caregivers to make a suitable visit plan to respect their privacy and decrease the disruptions of daily routine.…”

Improving sepsis recognition through use of the Sepsis Trust's community screening tool

“…Community clinicians are unable to easily access investigations and so need to rely on clinical judgement to elicit clinical signs which may help in the identification of the symptoms of sepsis (Olander et al, 2021). All patients should have a full set of vital signs completed and documented as part of the assessment process and a NEWS2 score should be calculated and documented for all vital signs recorded (Baker et al, 2021. The NEWS2 score is a simple risk stratification score which measures the potential for deterioration and critical illness and is calculated from the culmination of scores associated with each vital sign (Respiratory Rate, Oxygen Saturations, Pulse, Blood Pressure, Temperature and Level of Consciousness).…”