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Objectives: To determine the factors associated with the potentially inappropriate transfer of nursing home (NH) residents to emergency departments (EDs) and to compare hospitalization costs before and after transfer of individuals addressed inappropriately vs those addressed appropriately., Design: Multicenter, observational, case-control study., Setting and Participants: 17 hospitals in France, 1037 NH residents., Measures: All NH residents transferred to the 17 public hospitals' EDs in southern France were systematically included for 1 week per season. An expert panel composed of family physicians, emergency physicians, geriatricians, and pharmacists defined whether the transfer was potentially inappropriate or appropriate. Residents' and NHs' characteristics and contextual factors were entered into a mixed logistic regression to determine factors associated independently with potentially inappropriate transfers. Hospital costs were collected in the national health insurance claims database for the 6 months before and after the transfer., Results: A total of 1037 NH residents (mean age 87.2 ± 7.1, 68% female) were transferred to the ED; 220 (21%) transfers were considered potentially inappropriate. After adjustment, anorexia [odds ratio (OR) 2.41, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.57-3.71], high level of disability (OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.81-0.99), and inability to receive prompt medical advice (OR 1.67, 95% CI 1.20-2.32) were significantly associated with increased likelihood of potentially inappropriate transfers. The existence of an Alzheimer's disease special care unit in the NH (OR 0.66, 95% CI 0.48-0.92), NH staff trained on advance directives (OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.41-0.89), and calling the SAMU (mobile emergency medical unit) (OR 0.47, 95% CI 0.34-0.66) were significantly associated with a lower probability of potentially inappropriate transfer. Although the 6-month hospitalization costs prior to transfer were higher among potentially inappropriate transfers compared with appropriate transfers (€6694 and €4894, respectively), transfer appropriateness was not significantly associated with hospital costs., Conclusions and Implications: Transfers from NHs to hospital EDs were frequently appropriate. Transfer appropriateness was conditioned by NH staff training, access to specialists' medical advice, and calling the SAMU before making transfer decisions., Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02677272., (Copyright © 2021 AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Importance: Dementia is often underdiagnosed in nursing homes (NHs). This potentially results in inappropriate care, and high rates of emergency department (ED) transfers in particular., Objective: To assess whether systematic dementia screening of NH residents combined with multidisciplinary team meetings resulted in a lower rate of ED transfer at 12 months compared with usual care., Design, Setting, and Participants: Multicenter, cluster randomized trial with NHs as the unit of randomization. The IDEM (Impact of Systematic Tracking of Dementia Cases on the Rate of Hospitalization in Emergency Care Units) trial took place at 64 public and private NHs in France. Recruitment started on May 1, 2010, and was completed on March 31, 2012. Residents who were aged 60 years or older, had no diagnosed or documented dementia, were not bedridden, had lived in the NH for at least 1 month at inclusion, and had a life expectancy greater than 12 months were included. The residents were followed up for 18 months. The main study analyses were completed on October 14, 2016., Intervention: Two parallel groups were compared: an intervention group consisting of NHs that set up 2 multidisciplinary team meetings to identify residents with dementia and to discuss an appropriate care plan, and a control group consisting of NHs that continued their usual practice. During the inclusion period of 23 months, all residents of participating NHs who met eligibility criteria were included in the study., Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary end point (ED transfer) was analyzed at 12 months, but the residents included were followed up for 18 months., Results: A total of 64 NHs participated in the study and enrolled 1428 residents (mean [SD] age, 84.7 [8.1] years; 1019 [71.3%] female): 599 in the intervention group (32 NHs) and 829 in the control group (32 NHs). The final study visit was completed by 1042 residents (73.0%). The main reason for early discontinuation was death (318 residents [22.7%]). The intervention did not reduce the risk of ED transfers during the 12-month follow-up: the proportion of residents transferred at least once to an ED during the 12-month follow-up was 16.2% in the intervention group vs 12.8% in the control group (odds ratio, 1.32; 95% CI, 0.83-2.09; P = .24)., Conclusions and Relevance: This study failed to demonstrate that systematic screening for dementia in NHs resulted in fewer ED transfers. The findings do not support implementation of multidisciplinary team meetings for systematic dementia screening of all NH residents, beyond the national recommendations for dementia diagnosis, to reduce ED transfers., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01569997.

Purpose: To study the effect of a quality assurance approach in a nursing home, with or without the intervention of a geriatrician, on the potentially inappropriate prescription of antipsychotics (PIPA) at 18 months; and to identify the factors associated with PIPA after 18 months of intervention (T18)., Methods: We used data from a multicentre individually tailored controlled trial (IQUARE study). The study population comprised residents included in the IQUARE study with at least one potentially inappropriate prescription of antipsychotics at baseline (T0) who were still in nursing home at T18 (n = 636; nursing homes = 175). The control group received individual feedback from the quality assurance audit performed at baseline. The intervention group also had at least 5 collaborative work meetings with a geriatrician over an 18-month period. We used a multilevel logistic regression model., Results: The rates of inappropriate antipsychotic drug prescribing were 66.5% and 45.2% at T0 and T18, respectively. This decrease in the rate of PIPA is significant (p < 0.001). A significant decrease was found within each group: in the intervention arm (68.1% at T0 vs. 44.6% at T18; p < 0.001) and in the control arm (65.2% at T0 vs. 45.6% at T18; p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis did not highlight any statistically significant association between living in a nursing home having received an intervention and PIPA at T18., Conclusions: Collaborative work meetings with a geriatrician does not provide significant added value to a global quality assurance approach towards PIPA. Individual feedback to each nursing home appears to have a substantial impact on decreasing PIPA., (© 2019. European Geriatric Medicine Society.)

Background: The transfer rate of residents from nursing homes (NH) to emergency rooms is high. These transfers are often inappropriate but also potentially avoidable. Recent studies have shown that in terms of methods for training NH teams, proposals for improvement of the healthcare sector must be organized. Given this observation, Gérontopôle de Toulouse (France) opened in October 2015, a responsive day hospital dedicated to NH residents (DH NH). This day hospital is characterized by its vocation, exclusively dedicated to NH residents and its ability to provide patient care within a short period of time., Objectives: The purpose of this day hospital is twofold: (1) decrease the rate of inappropriate transfers for NH residents by offering general practitioners and NH teams quick access to expert advice, blood tests and radiological examinations during hospitalizations and care adapted to the characteristics of NH residents; (2) potentially reduce avoidable transfers to emergency rooms and hospitalizations by taking action to prevent acute decompensation in residents, but also for the education and training of NH healthcare teams. This manuscript aims to describe the arrangements put in place and the characteristics of the residents collected after two years of activity., Design: Retrospective descriptive study., Setting: Gérontopôle of Toulouse, France., Participants: 1306 residents have been consulted at the DH NH., Measurements: Referring physicians (treating physicians, coordinating physician or emergency room physicians) send a standardized hospitalization request form to the day hospital by fax or email indicating the reason for the request, specialist opinion(s) desired and additional required examination(s). A gerontological assessment was conducted and anamnesis data was collected for each resident, on the very day of their coming to the DH NH., Results: In 2 years, 1306 residents from 120 NHs were sent to the DH NH. The mean age was 86.23 ± 7.05 years and the majority of patients were women (n=941, 72.22%), dependent (median ADL at 2.75, [1.25-4.5]) and malnourished (821, 63.25%). In the 3 months prior to their visit to the day hospital, 668 (57.14%) residents had been hospitalized, and one-quarter (n=336, 25.72%) had been transferred to emergency rooms. The main reasons for hospitalization included assessment of cognitive disorders (n=336, 17.52%), assistance in managing behavioral disorders (n=297, 15.48%) and bedsores and slow wound healing (n=223, 11.63%)., Conclusion: Our experience over a 2-year period suggests that the DH NH could be a practical response to the problem of inappropriate and avoidable transfers of NH residents to emergency rooms. This innovation could easily be utilized in other hospitals., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflict of interest to declare

Institutionalization is generally a consequence of functional decline driven by physical limitations, cognitive impairments, and/or loss of social supports. At this stage, intervention to reverse functional losses is often too late. To be more effective, geriatric medicine must evolve to intervene at an earlier stage of the disability process. Could nursing homes (NHs) transform from settings in which many residents dwell to settings in which the NH residents and those living in neighboring communities benefit from staff expertise to enhance quality of life and maintain or slow functional decline? A task force of clinical researchers met in Toulouse on December 2, 2015, to address some of these challenges: how to prevent or slow functional decline and disabilities for NH residents and how NHs may promote the prevention of functional decline in community-dwelling frail elderly. The present article reports the main results of the Task Force discussions to generate a new paradigm., (Copyright © 2016 AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Dementia is frequently associated with behavioural disorders that can be difficult to manage. In regards to these symptoms, psychoactive drugs are not very effective and have many potential side effects. In order to take care of patients with such severe disorders, specific units called "reinforced hosting units" ("UHR; Unités d'Hébergement Renforcées" in French) have been developed within long term care units. Specifically trained teams take care of these patients in specially designed settings. A French national inquiry has studied the development, the characteristics and the activity of these units in 2013 and 2012., (Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.)

Objective: To determine whether the number of attending general practitioners (GPs) in nursing homes and other facility characteristics are associated with inappropriate neuroleptic prescribing., Design: Cross-sectional study., Setting: One hundred seventy-five nursing homes in France participating in the IQUARE (Impact d'une démarche QUAlité sur l'évolution des pratiques et le déclin fonctionnel des Résidents en EHPAD) study., Participants: A total of 6275 residents included between May and July 2011., Measurements: The outcome measure was potentially inappropriate prescribing of neuroleptic drugs according to the approved indications and French guidelines. Resident characteristics and nursing home characteristics were electronically recorded by the nursing home's coordinating physician. Because of the hierarchical structure of data (resident level and nursing home level), multivariate analysis using a multilevel binary logistic model was carried out to investigate factors associated with inappropriate neuroleptic prescribing., Results: Of 6275 residents enrolled, 1532 (24.4%) had at least 1 prescription for a neuroleptic drug. This corresponded to 513 residents (33.5%) with appropriate prescribing (with regard to indication, substance and dose) and 1019 (66.5%) with potentially inappropriate prescribing. The multilevel binary logistic model showed that residents who lived in a nursing home with 30 GPs or more/100 beds had a higher likelihood of potentially inappropriate prescription than those who lived in nursing homes with fewer than 10 GPs/100 beds [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.80; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.04-3.12]. Residents who were ≥ 85 years old and those with dementia were more likely to have inappropriate prescription (aOR 1.75; 95% CI 1.32-2.32 and aOR, 2.06; 95% CI 1.56-2.74, respectively) such as the statement "no psychotropic drug prescription," whereas the resident did in fact have a prescription (aOR 1.96; 95% CI 1.03-3.74)., Conclusions: Organizational difficulties because of a large number of physicians probably explain the association with inappropriate prescribing of neuroleptics., (Copyright © 2015 AMDA - The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)