Seniors Returning to Community Face “Potentially Preventable” Hospital Admissions

By Sharon Massafra from the Home Instead Senior Care® office in Trumbull / Sandy Hook

Q.    My 85-year-old mother-in-law has just returned home from a brief stay in a nursing home. She suffers from COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), and my husband and I are worried about her. She’s forgetting to eat and we’re not sure she is remembering to take her medications either. We live two hours away and don’t know what to do. She just wants to stay home.

Statistics for years have been nearly unanimous. Like your mother, as many as 90 percent of seniors typically say they want to age at home. But illness and the effects of aging could jeopardize that goal. A recent study has found that older adults eligible for Medicaid and Medicare who were moved into community care from nursing homes had a 40 percent greater risk of “potentially preventable” hospitalizations.

Lack of training are among reasons why care in home and community settings is not as effective in preventing hospitalizations, said Andrea Wysocki, a postdoctoral scholar in the Brown University School of Public Health and lead author of the study.

Wysocki said her finding of a higher potentially preventable hospitalization risk for seniors who transitioned to community- or home-based care suggests that some medical needs are not as well addressed in community settings as they are in nursing homes. More vigilant and effective treatment for chronic, already-diagnosed ailments such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease could prevent some of the hospitalizations that occur.

What many don’t realize is that home care may provide the kind of support that could help keep seniors out of the hospital. In a pilot of 30 patients returning home from the hospital, one Home Instead Senior Care® office found that 96 percent stayed out of the hospital longer than 30 days with daily assistance at home in such tasks as medication education and reminders, assistance in monitoring and tracking health reports, and follow-up doctor’s appointments.

Home Instead CAREGiversSM, who are screened, trained, bonded and insured, also provide companionship and assistance with such tasks as meal preparation, light housekeeping, errands and shopping. This support not only could help keep your mother-in-law home, it might provide some measure of reassurance for you and your husband.

To learn more, contact an office near you.

For more information about Home Instead Senior Care®, contact Sharon Massafra at 203-386-1151 or go to HomeInstead.com/307. For additional details about the study, visit http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2014/01/hospitals. And to learn more about ways to keep seniors out of the hospital, go to ReturningHome.com.