Objectives: To investigate whether implementation of municipal acute bed units (MAUs) resulting from the Norwegian Coordination Reform (2012) was associated with reductions in hospital admissions, particularly for the elderly.
Design: A municipality-based retrospective comparative cohort study using monthly population-based registry data analysed with fixed-effects log-log regressions.
Setting: Norwegian municipalities and hospitals.
Population: All patients admitted to secondary hospital care in Norway between 2010 and 2014, excluding psychiatric admissions, with additional focus on admission type and elderly age subgroups.
Main outcome measures: Monthly admission rates in total and by age group for all patients, patients admitted with acute conditions and with acute conditions at internal medicine departments.
Results: The introduction of MAUs was associated with a small yet significant overall negative effect on hospital admissions. The reduction in all admissions was significant for the entire population (-1.2%, 95% CI -2.0% to -0.0%) and slightly stronger for those aged 80 years and above (-1.9%, 95% CI -3.0% to -1.0%). The more detailed analysis of the elderly population aged 80 years and above revealed that effects were affected by the institutional characteristics of the MAUs. The significant effects ranged between -1.6% and -8.6%, depending on the availability of physicians on duty at the MAUs, the MAUs location or combinations thereof.
Conclusions: Introduction of MAUs following implementation of the Norwegian Coordination Reform in 2012 was associated with a significant reduction in hospital admissions primarily for the elderly. Our findings suggest that this type of intermediate care is a viable option in an effort to alleviate the burden on hospitals by reducing the acute secondary care admission volume. Further examinations focused on cost-effectiveness, health status of patients, number of patients treated at the MAUs and comparing other intermediate care alternatives would all add important perspectives to the issue.
Keywords: elderly; healthcare reform; hospital admission rates; intermediate care; registry data.
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