ABSTRACT
Purpose@#The purpose of this study was to validate the Edmonson psychiatric fall risk assessment tool (EPFRAT) for psychiatric inpatients. @*Methods@#Data from retrospective study were collected from 670 adult inpatients in two departments of mental health medicine of a tertiary general hospital by reviewing their electronic medical records. There were 41 patients who experienced falls and 629 patients who did not experience falls during the period from January to December 2019. Data were analyzed by sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and a receiver-operating characteristic curve (ROC) for validity assessment using the IBM SPSS/WIN 26.0 program. @*Results@#Factors affecting falls were the participant’s age, guardian’s residence, high-risk determination at the time of admission, and comorbidity. At the 85 points where the point of sum of the sensitivity and specificity was largest, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of EPFRAT were 92.7%, 79.7%, 22.9%, and 99.4%, respectively. The area under the ROC to assess the overall validity of the tool was .92 (95% CI 0.89~0.94). @*Conclusion@#The EPFRAT was proved to be valid and reasonable for predicting falls in psychiatric inpatients. Based on the results of this study, it could be used for the assessment of high-risk patients for falls in psychiatric units.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: This study was conducted to investigate patients' characteristics and actual conditions of home-based services offered by a free-standing hospice center. METHODS: A retrospective review was performed with the medical records of 75 patients who received home-based hospice care from a free-standing hospice center from January 2014 through December 2014. RESULTS: Most patients (54.7%) were enrolled via self-directed referral. The reason for the service termination was death at home 25.3%, admission to a hospice ward 50.7%, hospitalization 22.6% and patients' refusal 2.7%. Seventy three patients had cancer, and two patients had ALS. Among all, 58.7% were in a dying phase, and 34.7% were almost completely bedfast at the time of their enrollment in this study. When they enrolled, the patients' physical symptoms were characterized as pain (89.4%), sleep disturbance (71.2%), urinary difficulties (35.8%) and defecation difficulties (47.8%). Among all, 77.4% terminated the home visit service within one month. The mean frequency of the home visits was 3.25 (±3.98), and less than five in 82.7% of patients. The mean frequency of the phone service was 3.40 (±3.12). The frequency of doctor's home visits was 1.21±0.79 on average, and the figure increased when patients' conditions turned unstable. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to develop a home-based hospice care model with consideration of patients' characteristics and the actual service conditions delivered by free-standing hospice facilities.