Interdisciplinary geriatric primary care evaluation and management: two-year outcomes.

BACKGROUND: The long-term efficacy of interdisciplinary outpatient primary care Geriatric Evaluation and Management (GEM) has not been proven. This article focuses on results obtained during the 2 years of the study. METHODS: In this 2-year randomized clinical trial, at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Memphis, TN, 128 veterans, age 65 years and older, were randomized to outpatient GEM or usual care (UC). Two-year follow-up analyses are based on the 98 surviving individuals. Study outcome measurements included health status, function, and quality of life including affect, cognition, and mortality. RESULTS: At 2 years, there were positive intervention effects for eight of 1 outcome measures, five of which had attained significance at 1 year. GEM subjects, compared with UC subjects, had significantly greater improvement in health perception (P = .001), smaller increases in numbers of clinic visits (P = .019) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) impairments (P = .006), improved social activity (P<.001), greater improvement in Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) scores (P = .003), general well-being (P = .001), life satisfaction (P<.001), and Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) scores (P = .025). There were no significant treatment effects in activities of daily living (ADL) scores (P = .386), number of hospitalizations (P = .377), or mortality (P = .155). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that a primary care approach that combines an initial interdisciplinary comprehensive assessment with long-term, interdisciplinary outpatient management may improve outcomes for targeted older adults significantly. Findings suggest further that outcomes may continue to improve over time and that the GEM care model provides an effective way to manage health care of older adults.

Impact of continued geriatric outpatient management on health outcomes of older veterans.

BACKGROUND: Although previous trials have proved inpatient-based geriatric assessment to be beneficial, to our knowledge, the effectiveness of outpatient geriatric assessment has not been established. We examined the effectiveness of an outpatient geriatric evaluation and management (GEM) clinic. METHODS: Hospitalized veterans aged 65 years or older with impairment of activities of daily living, chronic disease, polypharmacy, or two or more hospitalizations in the previous year were randomized to an outpatient GEM team clinic (n = 60) or usual care (n = 68). After an initial comprehensive assessment, they received long-term management in the geriatric clinic. Principal outcomes included health status (mortality, hospitalizations, health perception, and medications), function (activities of daily living, instrumental ADL, and social activity), affect (Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression test score and life satisfaction), and cognition (Mini-Mental State examination score). RESULTS: At randomization, no significant differences were noted between the groups. The average age of the patients was 71 years (range, 65 to 93 years). At 1 year following randomization, GEM clinic patients compared with subjects receiving usual care had significantly improved health perception, took fewer medications despite increased number of diagnoses, reported greater social activity, had improved Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale scores, and had higher life satisfaction scores. There was a trend toward improved performance of activities of daily living for GEM clinic patients. The GEM clinic patients had a 54% lower mortality (6.8% vs 14.9%). Overall, no differences were observed in the total number of hospitalizations between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of long-term management following comprehensive outpatient assessment significantly improved aspects of health status (including health perception and medications), function (including social activity), and affect (including depression and life satisfaction) for older veterans and may influence mortality and function.

Mortality in a public and a private hospital compared: the severity of antecedent disorders in Medicare patients.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to determine (1) if there were significant differences between patients who died at a public hospital and those who died at a university hospital that functions as a private, community hospital, and (2) if those differences were associated with an increased risk of death. METHODS: Chart review collected variables used by the Health Care Financing Administration in mortality analyses to examine how severity of illness data contribute to accurate predictions of death in a public hospital compared with a university hospital. RESULTS: Compared with patients who died at the university hospital, public hospital patients who died had more comorbid disease, were more severely ill, more likely to be emergently admitted, and more likely to be admitted from an extended-care facility. Inclusion of severity of illness with variables previously used to predict mortality significantly improved the accuracy of mortality prediction models for the public hospital but not for the university hospital. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that urban public hospitals provide care to more severely ill patients. Administrative data sets may not be adequate to identify these differences between patient populations.

Factors predicting readmission of older general medicine patients.

OBJECTIVES: 1) Identify demographic, clinical social support, functional, and psychological factors about which data are available within 24 hours of hospital admission associated with emergent unscheduled readmission for a group of older general medicine patients; 2) develop a model to predict emergent readmission. DESIGN: Interview- and chart-based study of emergent admissions that occurred within 60 days of discharge. SETTING: General medicine wards of the Memphis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, an 862-bed university-affiliated tertiary care facility. PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS: General medicine patients greater than or equal to 65 years old (n = 173). Inclusion criteria were willingness to participate, written consent (patient or family member), and patient interview within 36 hours of admission. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The dependent variable was emergent readmission within 60 days of discharge from the hospital. Independent variables included demographic (age, race, income, education), social support (marital status, living arrangements), psychological (cognition, depression), activities of daily living functioning, and clinical (diagnoses, type and source of admission, length of stay, numbers of hospitalizations and days of hospitalizations in the past year, illness severity) parameters. Readmitted patients were emergently admitted and more severely ill, had more diagnoses of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or congestive heart failure (CHF), less ischemic heart disease, and more hospitalizations and hospital days in the past year (all p less than 0.05). Logistic regression identified diagnostic group (COPD or CHF), emergent admission, and admission severity of illness as predictive of readmission. The likelihood of being readmitted was 5.4. Accuracy of the three-variable model was 76%, predicted value positive, 73%, and predictive value negative, 77%. CONCLUSIONS: Chronically ill patients who are severely ill at index admission and who have had several hospitalizations in the past year tend to be readmitted. Using this model, high-risk patients may be prospectively targeted to reduce readmissions.

Prediction of in-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest outcome.

Clinical and demographic characteristics of 122 patients undergoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation were retrospectively collected to develop a predictive model for immediate success of resuscitation (restoration of pulse and blood pressure). The project focused on objective measurement of parameters available before resuscitation was performed. Variables included age, diagnoses, objective severity of illness, laboratory data, and clinical course variables. A four-variable model was developed using logistic regression to predict resuscitation success immediately after resuscitation. The four predictive before arrest factors were age between 40 and 70 years, scheduled for surgery, location of arrest in an intensive care unit, and before arrest PO2 greater than 8 mm Hg. The model had an accuracy of 69%, sensitivity of 76%, and specificity of 61%.

Pacemaker therapy for academic medicine.

Both the clinical practice and the administrative environments of academic medicine have become progressively more complex. Although management methods for dealing with the administrative intricacies are commonly not part of academic training, guidelines may be derived from medical practice. The authors identify specific parallels and analogies between recent developments in the design of pacemakers and the requirements of organizations that implant them.