Frailty Is Associated With Early Hospital Readmission in Older Medical Patients.

Given the pervasiveness of frailty and its negative effects on health care-related outcomes, we evaluated patient frailty and comorbidity and determined the relationship between these measures and the probability of early readmission and length of hospital stay. Our retrospective analysis includes 435 patients evaluated using the Reported Edmonton Frailty Scale and the Age-Adjusted Charlson Comorbidity Index. We found that frailty as measured by the Reported Edmonton Frailty Scale was a significant predictor of hospital readmission and length of stay, and frailty outperformed the explanatory power of our comorbidity metric.

Projecting function of stroke patients in rehabilitation using the AlphaFIM instrument in acute care.

Objectives: (1) To establish the reliability and validity of the AlphaFIM instrument; (2) To examine the hypotheses that the 6-item AlphaFIM instrument administered in acute care would closely approximate the full 18-item FIM instrument rating administered at admission to an inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF); (3) to determine whether the acute AlphaFIM projected rating could predict the full FIM instrument ratings at discharge from the IRF; (4) to test whether the acute AlphaFIM projected rating could predict length of stay (LOS) in the IRF; (5) to determine if the acute AlphaFIM projected rating could predict the likelihood of patients being discharged from the IRF to the community.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A prospective cohort study of 144 stroke patients in an acute care stroke unit with subsequent transfer to an IRF.

Interventions: None.