Recognizing and Responding to Acute Deterioration in Care Home Residents

What we are doing?

Exploring how care home workers recognize and respond to acute deterioration in care home residents. What happens when they find an unwell resident, what are the procedures for escalating care and who is involved in the processes.

Using rich data to co-develop a care home specific acute deterioration framework with care home workers and stakeholders. 

Why we are doing it?

Acute deterioration in manageable and treatable if recognized early. Current deterioration tools being used in care homes are based on hospital practices and have not been validated for use in the care home We know that early recognition and response to deterioration can lead to improved patient outcomes, prevent hospital admissions and maximise care home residents time in the care home whilst maintaining optimal levels of health and well-being. 

What the benefits will be and to whom?

Care home residents will benefit as early recognition and response to deterioration can precent avoidable hospital admissions and harm to residents, lower acuity level of critical illness, able to receive treatment whilst remaining in the care home and, if the residents needs to be admitted to hospital, reduced length of stay. 

This has the potential of economic and cost saving benefits to the NHS as the use of secondary and acute services is reduced as a result of being able to manage care home residents’ illnesses within the care home,

Who we are working with?

The study has its own PPI Group and will continue to work closely with care home stakeholders.

Care Home stakeholders feature managers, workers, residents and relatives of care home residents.

Community of Practice Care Home Forum 

ENRICH

Contact

Sevim Hodge, Clinical Nurse Researcher/ARC PhD Fellow, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust/University of Nottingham, ntxsyh@nottingham.ac.uk

Photo by Georg Arthur Pflueger on Unsplash