Outcomes in older patients requiring comprehensive allied health care prior to discharge from the emergency department.

Objectives: There is increasing focus on use of multidisciplinary services within the ED to facilitate discharge of older patients that might otherwise require hospitalisation. The risks associated with this are not well established. We aimed to determine whether older patients requiring allied health-facilitated discharge from the ED were at increased risk of hospital readmission and death after discharge.

Derivation of a nomogram to estimate probability of revisit in at-risk older adults discharged from the emergency department.

Estimation of the risk of revisit to the emergency department (ED) soon after discharge in the older population may assist discharge planning and targeting of post discharge intervention in high risk patients. In this study we sought to derive a risk prediction calculator for this purpose. In a prospective observational study in two tertiary ED, we conducted a comprehensive assessment of people aged 65 and over, and followed them for a minimum of 28 days post discharge.

The impact of early emergency department allied health intervention on admission rates in older people: a non-randomized clinical study.

Background: This study sought to determine whether early allied health intervention by a dedicated Emergency Department (ED) based team, occurring before or in parallel with medical assessment, reduces hospital admission rates amongst older patients presenting with one of ten index problems.

Methods: A prospective non-randomized trial in patients aged sixty five and over, conducted in two Australian hospital EDs. Intervention group patients, receiving early comprehensive allied health input, were compared to patients that received no allied health assessment.