1. Direct Admission from the Emergency Department to a Subacute Care Ward: An Alternative to Acute Hospitalization
- Author
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Hsiang Peng Adrian Lee, Thulasi Chandran, Subramaniam Nagasayi, Wai Leng Chow, Stephen Paul Wilkinson, Seng Hock Ang, Ko Yen Ivan Ngeow, Jia Hui Xu, Tsung Chien Christopher Lien, Seruwati Abdul Hamid, Xin Yu Koh, Yuan Xin Christine Chen, Barbara Helen Rosario, and Foo Chin Loi
- Subjects
Acute hospitalization ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Hospitals, Community ,03 medical and health sciences ,Patient Admission ,0302 clinical medicine ,Older patients ,Humans ,Medicine ,Subacute care ,030212 general & internal medicine ,General Nursing ,Acute hospital ,Inpatient stay ,business.industry ,Health Policy ,General Medicine ,Emergency department ,Length of Stay ,Community hospital ,Hospitalization ,Emergency medicine ,Geriatrics and Gerontology ,Emergency Service, Hospital ,business ,Intermediate care ,Subacute Care ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
In recent years, subacute care units (SCUs) have emerged as alternatives to acute hospitalization for selected emergency department (ED) patients who might benefit from a short period of inpatient stay within a less acute setting. We developed a new protocol to directly admit selected older patients from our acute hospital's (AH) ED to the SCU of a partner community hospital, making use of our ED's short-stay ward as a transit area to overcome administrative, financial, and clinical barriers. The new protocol has removed the need for intervening stays of longer than 24 hours at our AH, reduced overall length of stay across both institutions, decreased hospital admissions, and reduced the number of patient hand-offs.
- Published
- 2020