Objectives: Primary care physician-led community hospitals provide basic hospital care for older people in Finland. Yet little is known of the outcomes of the care. We investigated factors associated with discharge destination after hospitalization in a community hospital and the role of active rehabilitation during the stay.
Design: Prospective observational study.
Setting and participants: Short-term community hospital stays of older adults (≥65 years) living in the Kuopio University Hospital district in central and eastern Finland.
Methods: Data on short-term (1-31 days) hospital stays from 51 community hospitals were collected with an electronic survey between January and June 2016. Physicians, secretaries, and rehabilitation staff from each community hospital completed the data collection form. Discharge destination was defined as home, residential care or death, and active rehabilitation as frequency of rehabilitation at least once a day. Analyses were conducted using the Bayesian approach and the BayesiaLab 9.1 tool.
Results: Data of 11,628 community hospital stays were analyzed. The patients' mean age was 81.6 years (SD 7.9), and 57.5% were women. A younger age (65-74 years), a high number of rehabilitation staff (>2 per 10 patients), and receiving rehabilitation at least once a day were associated with discharging patients to their own homes. Daily rehabilitation was associated with returning to home in all patient groups.
Conclusions and implications: Older patients admitted to a community hospital for any reason may benefit from active rehabilitation. The role of community hospitals in the acute care and rehabilitation of older patients is important in aging societies.
Keywords: Community hospitals; discharge destination; local hospitals; older patients; rehabilitation.
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