Aims: The paper describes a service (Dinner Bed and Breakfast [DBB]) to provide short-term rest home care to acutely unwell elderly people as an alternative to acute hospital admission. This was part of a larger project to manage acute general hospital demand. Service changes were introduced after an initial audit cycle and key outcomes monitored.
Method: Retrospective audit of patient data for three audit periods.
Results: The interim outcomes (at conclusion of DBB funding) in the initial audit were 46% of patients able to return home, 32% remained in the rest home, and 22% were admitted to hospital. The proportion of patients returning home from DBB increased to 68% over the study period. At final outcome (at end of index illness), the return home rate increased from 73% to 85% and the number requiring permanent rest home care decreased from 22% to 14%.
Conclusions: Short-term rest home care may be a viable alternative to acute hospital care, but the service needs to include appropriate patient selection, multidisciplinary care, and ongoing monitoring of patient outcomes. One of the risks of this service is patients staying on in rest home care. Short-term enhanced home care may be preferable to rest home care to avoid this risk. The shift of care (from acute hospital to community) caused strain on specialist geriatric services, which was not planned or funded.