Factors Associated with Potentially Inappropriate Transfer to the Emergency Department among Nursing Home Residents

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the factors associated with the potentially inappropriate transfer of nursing home (NH) residents to emergency departments (EDs) and to compare hospitalization costs before and after transfer of individuals addressed inappropriately vs those addressed appropriately.

Design: Multicenter, observational, case-control study.

Setting and participants: 17 hospitals in France, 1037 NH residents.

Measures: All NH residents transferred to the 17 public hospitals' EDs in southern France were systematically included for 1 week per season. An expert panel composed of family physicians, emergency physicians, geriatricians, and pharmacists defined whether the transfer was potentially inappropriate or appropriate. Residents' and NHs' characteristics and contextual factors were entered into a mixed logistic regression to determine factors associated independently with potentially inappropriate transfers. Hospital costs were collected in the national health insurance claims database for the 6 months before and after the transfer.

Results: A total of 1037 NH residents (mean age 87.2 ± 7.1, 68% female) were transferred to the ED; 220 (21%) transfers were considered potentially inappropriate. After adjustment, anorexia [odds ratio (OR) 2.41, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.57-3.71], high level of disability (OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.81-0.99), and inability to receive prompt medical advice (OR 1.67, 95% CI 1.20-2.32) were significantly associated with increased likelihood of potentially inappropriate transfers. The existence of an Alzheimer's disease special care unit in the NH (OR 0.66, 95% CI 0.48-0.92), NH staff trained on advance directives (OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.41-0.89), and calling the SAMU (mobile emergency medical unit) (OR 0.47, 95% CI 0.34-0.66) were significantly associated with a lower probability of potentially inappropriate transfer. Although the 6-month hospitalization costs prior to transfer were higher among potentially inappropriate transfers compared with appropriate transfers (€6694 and €4894, respectively), transfer appropriateness was not significantly associated with hospital costs.

Conclusions and implications: Transfers from NHs to hospital EDs were frequently appropriate. Transfer appropriateness was conditioned by NH staff training, access to specialists' medical advice, and calling the SAMU before making transfer decisions.

Trial registration: clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02677272.

Keywords: Inappropriate transfer; appropriate transfer; appropriateness of transfer; emergency department transfer; nursing home resident.