Managing Frailty and Delayed Transfers of Care in the Acute Setting: A call to get involved!

Debbie Hibbert  leads on the NHS Benchmarking Network’s community sector benchmarking projects, manages the Delayed Transfers of Care / Older People’s benchmarking projects, is the Project Manager for the National Audit of Intermediate Care (NAIC), and the National Audit of Care at the End of Life (NACEL). She tweets @Debbie_NHSBN 

In this blog, the Managing Frailty and Delayed Transfers of Care in the Acute Setting project is described. Clinicians are encouraged to get involved with this project, the outputs of which include a bespoke report for participants and access to an online benchmarking toolkit. To receive your log in details or for further information, please contact josh.davies@nhs.net.

Driving quality improvements in the care of older people remains a key issue for the NHS as the population of the UK ages. The NHS Benchmarking Network is back with another project following on from previous work on the care of older people, and delayed transfers of care.  The new project continues the Network’s six-year partnership with the BGS and will help our members to gather much needed data to inform service change and future strategic decisions.

Benchmarking Older People’s Care in Acute Settings

Lindsey Ashley is the Communications Manager for the NHS Benchmarking Network and is a strong advocate for benchmarking our NHS services.

It is recognised in the NHS and the media that older people are a major service user cohort for health and social care services, both in hospital (the acute setting) and in the community. It is well described that the population is ageing, as people are living longer, and as a result, there are more older people as a proportion of the overall population. Whilst overall life expectancy is rising, there are also significant inequalities across the country in terms of life expectancy.

The NHS Benchmarking Network needs your help!

The British Geriatric Society are pleased to announce that our partnership project with the NHS Benchmarking Network is now live for data collection. Care of older people in acute settings is an exciting new project for 2014 which looks at pathways for older people through secondary care.

The project has been developed in conjunction with the BGS, and it will consider the path older people take through secondary care. The project looks at the journey from A&E through to short term assessment units, elderly care wards and supported discharge processes. Links with other sectors including primary care, community services, mental health and social care particularly at the front and back end of hospitals will be of particular interest and are explored in further detail in the project.