Standardized screening of elderly patients' needs for social work assessment in primary care: use of the SF-36.

Fewer hospitalizations and decreased lengths of stay in the hospital have resulted in an increased need for extensive support services and continuing care planning for elderly people in primary care. Early identification of elderly patients needing community and hospital nonmedical services is necessary so that timely appropriate services can be delivered. This study addresses the issue of whether a standardized health-related quality of life questionnaire, the SF-36, can be used independently as a screen predicting primary care elderly patients' needs for social work assessment.

Social work in the academic medical center: advanced training--a necessity.

Although the total number of social workers within the academic medical center will probably decrease because of decreasing hospital bed usage, the role for those who remain will be that of a clinical specialist, a sophisticated and adaptable practitioner who can work flexibly under minimal supervision. The valued social work practitioner will be an independent player on the health care team who assumes a significant role which no other member of that team is equipped to take. Advanced training is more important today than ever before in the evolution of social work practice in academic health care.

Early unplanned readmissions to social work of elderly patients: factors predicting who needs follow-up services.

There are some elderly patients who receive social work services during an initial hospitalization and experience an early unplanned readmission, when they again are in need of social work assistance. This research identified factors which differentiated social work patients who were readmitted to the hospital within one month and were again referred to social work services from those who were not readmitted. Three factors were found to be predictive of readmission to social work: longer length of stay in the initial hospitalization; presence of barriers which complicated the social work service plan undertaken in the first admission; and provision of social work services in the initial admission which were limited to information and referral only.

Predicting elderly cardiac patients at risk for readmission.

Elder patients with cardiac disease are at high risk for physical deterioration during post hospital recovery and suffer frequent early readmission. It is important to identify such patients who frequently need help with discharge planning from social workers during their first admission. This study utilized computerized data on 628 patients, 238 of whom were readmissions.

Screening elder cardiac patients to identify need for social work services.

Present screening methods to identify older patients in need of posthospital care planning are overly sensitive and lack specificity, with the rate of false-positive screenings reaching 65 percent. Research was undertaken to develop a computerized screening mechanism to identify elderly cardiac patients at high risk for posthospital care needs. Using the data from the Medicus Nursing Productivity and Quality of Patient Care Classification System (NPAQ) as potential predictive factors, the false-positive screening rate was reduced to 26 percent.