[Complexity and prevalence of geriatric syndromes in patients treated in intermediate care units in Catalonia: A multicentre study of XARESS project]

Abstract

Background: Descriptive study is presented on the complexity and prevalence of geriatric syndromes (GS) in Intermediate Care Units in Catalonia.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on 6471 stays completed during the year 2014 in the participating centres of the XARESS network. Data was obtained by extracting the information routinely collected on the CMBD-RSS registry (Minimum Basic Dataset for the Intermediate Care Resources). The prevalence and associations between geriatric síndromes (resource group) RG category, length of stay, and destination at discharge is described. Results were stratified by type of unit (convalescence or long stay).

Results: Participants presented a median of 3 GS at admission in long stay units, and 2 GS at admission in convalescence units. The number of GS varied with RG category, although in all RG categories, there were patients without complexity (no SG), and patients with extreme complexity (up to 9 GS). Patients with geriatric syndromes had a longer mean length of stay and greater dependence than patients without syndromes, although with great variability across GS. However, the presence of geriatric syndromes had no impact on the destination at discharge.

Conclusions: The population cared for in intermediate care units have high complexity and a high prevalence of geriatric syndromes at admission. The CMBD-RSS registry allows the characterisation of complexity of the population admitted to the Catalan convalescence and long term intermediate care units.

Keywords: Atención geriátrica; Atención integrada; Atención intermedia; Bases de datos clínicas; Clinical datasets; Geriatric care; Integrated care; Intermediate care; Registers; Registros.