Analysis of reasons for potentially preventable hospital transfers using the modified INTERACT-II Tool-Letter to the Editor

​Nursing home (NH) residents are generally frail and have multiple chronic illnesses, making them use hospital services frequently. Hospitalizations are often necessary, but a portion of them could potentially be prevented. Hospitalization of NH residents, although mostly essential for safe and effective care of acute conditions, can result in iatrogenic complications, morbidity, and excess health care expenditure. Hence, if clinical outcomes were not different between the NH and acute hospital care for the same condition, substantial savings may accrue if the residents were kept "in place". With increasing life expectancies and low fertility rates, the resident population of Singapore continues to age rapidly, imposing a huge burden on the health care services and funding of the country.

SOURCE:
Journal of the American Medical Directors Association

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2017.11.010

AUTHOR(S):
G Magpantay, HJ Toh, JA Low, WK Chia