The experience of hospital care for older surgical patients and their carers: A mixed-methods study.

OBJECTIVE: A growing proportion of older adults are undergoing surgery, but there is a paucity of patient and carer experience research in this group. This study investigated the experience of hospital care in an older vascular surgery population for patients and their carers. METHODS: This was a mixed-methods convergent design, including simultaneous collection of quantitative and qualitative research strands by combining open-ended questions with rating scales in a questionnaire. Recently hospitalised vascular surgery patients aged ≥65 years at a major teaching hospital were recruited. Carers were also approached to participate. RESULTS: Forty-seven patients (mean age 77 years, 77% male, 20% with a Clinical Frailty Scale score >4) and nine carers participated. The majority of patients reported that their views were listened to (n = 42, 89%), they were kept informed (n = 39, 83%), and were asked about their pain (n = 37, 79%). Among carers, seven reported their views were listened to and that they were kept informed. Thematic analysis of patients' and carers' responses to open-ended questions about their experience of hospital care revealed four themes in terms of what mattered to them: fundamental care including hygiene and nutrition, comfort of the hospital environment such as sleep and meals, being informed and involved in health-care decision-making, and treating pain and deconditioning to help recovery. CONCLUSIONS: Older adults admitted to hospital for vascular surgery and their carers, valued highly the care that met both their fundamental needs and facilitated shared decisions for care and recovery. These priorities can be addressed through Age-Friendly Health System initiatives.

Geriatric Comanagement of Older Vascular Surgery Inpatients Reduces Hospital-Acquired Geriatric Syndromes.

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluates the impact of a novel model of care called Geriatric Comanagement of Older Vascular surgery inpatients on clinical outcomes. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A pre-post study of geriatric comanagement, comparing prospectively recruited preintervention (February-October 2019) and prospectively recruited postintervention (January-December 2020) cohorts. Consecutively admitted vascular surgery patients age ≥65 years at a tertiary academic hospital in Concord and with an expected length of stay (LOS) greater than 2 days were recruited. INTERVENTION: A comanagement model where a geriatrician was embedded within the vascular surgery team and delivered proactive comprehensive geriatric assessment based interventions. METHODS: Primary outcomes of incidence of hospital-acquired geriatric syndromes, delirium, and LOS were compared between groups using univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses. Prespecified subgroup analysis was performed by frailty status. RESULTS: There were 150 patients in the preintervention group and 152 patients in the postintervention group. The postintervention group were more frail [66 (43.4%) vs 45 (30.0%)], urgently admitted [72 (47.4%) vs 56 (37.3%)], and nonoperatively managed [52 (34.2%) vs 33 (22.0%)]. These differences were attributed to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic during the postintervention phase. The postintervention group had fewer hospital-acquired geriatric syndromes [74 (48.7%) vs 97 (64.7%); P = .005] and reduced incident delirium [5 (3.3%) vs 15 (10.0%); P = .02], in unadjusted and adjusted analyses. Cardiac [8 (5.3%) vs 30 (20.0%); P < .001] and infective complications [4 (2.6%) vs 12 (8.0%); P = .04] were also fewer. LOS was unchanged. Frail patients in the postintervention group experienced significantly fewer geriatric syndromes including delirium. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: This is the first prospective study of inpatient geriatric comanagement for older vascular surgery patients. Reductions in hospital-acquired geriatric syndromes including delirium, and cardiac and infective complications were observed after implementing geriatric comanagement. These benefits were also demonstrated in the frail subgroup.

Understanding the Role and Value of Process Quality Indicators in Older Vascular Surgery Inpatients.

BACKGROUND: Despite the development of geriatrics surgery process quality indicators (QIs), few studies have reported on these QIs in routine surgical practice. Even less is known about the links between these QIs and clinical outcomes, and patient characteristics. We aimed to measure geriatrics surgery process QIs, and investigate the association between process QIs and outcomes, and QIs and patient characteristics, in hospitalized older vascular surgery patients. METHODS: This was a prospective cohort study of 150 consecutive patients aged ≥ 65 years admitted to a tertiary vascular surgery unit. Occurrence of geriatrics surgery process QIs as part of routine vascular surgery care was measured. Associations between QIs and high-risk patient characteristics, and QIs and clinical outcomes were assessed using clustered heatmaps. RESULTS: QI occurrence rate varied substantially from 2% to 93%. Some QIs, such as cognition and delirium screening, documented treatment preferences, and geriatrician consultation were infrequent and clustered with high-risk patient characteristcs. There were two major process-outcome clusters: (a) multidisciplinary consultations, communication and screening-based process QIs with multiple adverse outcomes, and (b) documentation and prescribing-related QIs with fewer adverse outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Clustering patterns of process QIs with clinical outcomes are complex, and there is a differential occurrence of QIs by patient characteristics. Prospective intervention studies that report on implemented QIs, outcomes and patient characteristics are needed to better understand the causal pathways between process QIs and outcomes, and to help prioritize targets for quality improvement in the care of older surgical patients.