Improving patient safety for older people in acute admissions: implementation of the Frailsafe checklist in 12 hospitals across the UK.

Background: checklists are increasingly proposed as a means to enhance safety and quality of care. However, their use has been met with variable levels of success. The Frailsafe project focused on introducing a checklist with the aim to increase completion of key clinical assessments and to facilitate communication for the care of older patients in acute admissions. Objectives: to examine the use of the Frailsafe checklist, including potential to contribute to improved safety, quality and reliability of care. Methods: 110 qualitative interviews and group discussions with healthcare professionals and other specialties, 172 h of ethnographic observation in 12 UK hospitals and reporting of high-level process data (completion of checklist and relevant frailty assessments). Qualitative analysis followed a thematic and theory-driven approach. Results: through use of the checklist, hospital teams identified limitations in their existing assessments (e.g. absence of delirium protocols) and practices (e.g. unnecessary catheter use). This contributed to hospitals reporting just 24.0% of sampled patients as having received all clinical assessments across key domains for this population for the duration of the project (1,687/7,021 checklists as fully completed). Staff perceptions and experiences of using the checklist varied significantly, primarily driven by the extent to which the aims of this quality improvement project aligned with local service priorities and pre-existing team communications styles. Conclusions: the Frailsafe checklist highlighted limitations with frailty assessment in acute care and motivated teams to review routine practices. Further work is needed to understand whether and how checklists can be embedded in complex, multidisciplinary care.

Frailsafe: from conception to national breakthrough collaborative.

The number of people aged over 60 years worldwide is projected to rise from 605 million in 2000 to almost 2 billion by 2050, while those over 80 years will quadruple to 395 million. Two-thirds of UK acute hospital admissions are over 65, the highest consultation rate in general practice is in those aged 85-89 and the average age of elective surgical patients is increasing. Adjusting medical systems to meet the demographic imperative has been recognised by the World Health Organisation to be the next global healthcare priority and is a key feature of discussions on policy, health services structures, workforce reconfiguration and frontline care delivery.

Nutritional Screening, Initial Management and Referral for Older People with Sarcopenia or Frailty - Results from a UK-Wide Survey.

Objectives: We surveyed healthcare staff working with older people to understand current practice in nutrition screening, initial management and referral for older people with sarcopenia and frailty. Methods: We conducted a UK-wide web-based survey of staff working with older people in both hospital and community settings. Surveys were distributed through professional organisation e-mail lists and social media channels. Descriptive data were generated from categorical responses and inductive thematic analysis was applied to free-text responses. Results: Data were analysed from 169 respondents (110 hospital, 59 community), representing 99 healthcare organisations. 91 (83%) hospital respondents and 24 (41%) community respondents reported that nutrition screening was performed on all patients with sarcopenia or frailty. The Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool was most commonly used to trigger referral to dietetics teams, but there was considerable variation in management before referral, referral thresholds and referral pathways. Themes derived from free-text responses included the need for training, issues of responsibility and ownership, inadequate resources (time, staff and equipment) and ineffective or inefficient processes for referral and management. Conclusions: Current UK nutritional care for older people with sarcopenia and frailty is heterogeneous. There are opportunities for better tools, processes, training and resources to improve current practice and pathways.

Frailty on the acute medical take.

Frailty is a prevalent condition in urgent care settings associated with an increased risk of adverse events. Frailty commonly presents on the acute medical take in the form of geriatric syndromes, which include falls, delirium and immobility. Comprehensive geriatric assessment is the evidence-based holistic approach to assessing and managing people with frailty. This multidimensional and interdisciplinary process is generally specialist led, however, acute medical teams can make important contributions through early identification and grading of frailty, and proactive management of geriatric syndromes.

Content of exercise programmes targeting older people with sarcopenia or frailty - findings from a UK survey.

OBJECTIVES: To establish whether existing exercise programmes offered to people with sarcopenia or frailty adhere to the current evidence base. METHODS: We conducted a national survey of practitioners delivering exercise programmes to older people with sarcopenia or frailty in the UK. The link to the online survey was distributed through email lists of professional societies, practice networks and social media. Questions covered target population and programme aims, type, duration and frequency of exercise, progress assessment and outcome measures. RESULTS: One hundred and thirty-six responses were received. 94% of respondents reported prescribing or delivering exercise programmes to people with sarcopenia or frailty. Most programmes (81/135 [60%]) were primarily designed to prevent or reduce falls. Resistance training was the main focus in only 11/123 (9%), balance training in 61/123 (50%) and functional exercise in 28/123 (23%). Exercise was offered once a week or less by 81/124 (65%) of respondents. Outcome measures suitable for assessing the effect of resistance training programmes were reported by fewer than half of respondents (hand grip: 13/119 [11%]; chair stands: 55/119 [46%]). CONCLUSIONS: Current UK exercise programmes offered to older people with sarcopenia or frailty lack the specificity, frequency or duration of exercise likely to improve outcomes for this patient group.

Current practice in the diagnosis and management of sarcopenia and frailty - results from a UK-wide survey.

OBJECTIVES: Despite a rising clinical and research profile, there is limited information about how frailty and sarcopenia are diagnosed and managed in clinical practice. Our objective was to build a picture of current practice by conducting a survey of UK healthcare professionals. METHODS: We surveyed healthcare professionals in NHS organisations, using a series of four questionnaires. These focussed on the diagnosis and management of sarcopenia, and the diagnosis and management of frailty in acute medical units, community settings and surgical units. RESULTS: Response rates ranged from 49/177 (28%) organisations for the sarcopenia questionnaire to 104/177 (59%) for the surgical unit questionnaire. Less than half of responding organisations identified sarcopenia; few made the diagnosis using a recognised algorithm or offered resistance training. The commonest tools used to identify frailty were the Rockwood Clinical Frailty Scale or presence of a frailty syndrome. Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment was offered by the majority of organisations, but this included exercise therapy in less than half of cases, and medication review in only one-third to two-thirds of cases. CONCLUSIONS: Opportunities exist to improve consistency of diagnosis and delivery of evidence-based interventions for both sarcopenia and frailty.

The emergence of sarcopenia as an important entity in older people.

Sarcopenia refers to the loss of muscle mass and strength seen with advancing age. The pathophysiology is multifactorial, with loss of muscle satellite cells, changes in hormonal systems, chronic inflammation, oxidative stress and anabolic resistance to protein utilisation all implicated. Older age, female sex and immobility are important risk factors. Sarcopenia is clinically important as it is a major risk factor for physical frailty, falls, prolonged hospitalisation, dependency and earlier death. Diagnosis requires evidence of reduced muscle mass measured by handgrip strength or walk speed, together with evidence of low muscle mass, measured by one of a variety of techniques such as bioimpedance analysis or dual X-ray absorptiometry. Resistance training is the only intervention of proven efficacy to treat sarcopenia, but a range of nutritional and pharmacological interventions are under test, including myostatin inhibitors, leucine and protein supplementation, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and allopurinol.

Discharge to assess: transforming the discharge process of frail older patients.

The 2012 Royal College of Physicians report Hospitals on the edge is clear that 'decisions about service redesign must be clinically led and clinicians must be prepared to challenge the way services - including their own service - are organised'. This paper describes a service redesign in which we have gained learning and experience in two areas. Firstly, a description of measured improvement by the innovation of redesigning the traditional hospital-based assessment of frail older patients' home support needs (assess to discharge) into their own home and meeting those needs in real time (discharge to assess). In combination with the formation of a collaborative health and social care community team to deliver this new process, there has been a reduction in the length of stay from completion of acute hospital care to getting home (from 5.5 days to 1.2 days for those patients that require support at home). Secondly, the methodology through which this has been achieved. We describe our translation of a Toyota methodology used for the design of complex cars to use for engaging staff and patients in the design of a healthcare process.