Simple ‘aftercare’ cuts NHS hospital readmissions

A new study has found that costly hospital readmissions in geriatric patients could be nearly halved if the NHS offered simple follow-up ‘aftercare’ calls and home visits for patients.

The study, carried out by Aston University’s School of Life and Health Sciences, suggests that readmissions could be cut by as much as 41 per cent if health authorities routinely made post-discharge calls to elderly patients after they are released from hospital.

Published in the Royal College of Physicians’ Future Healthcare Journal, the findings suggest that checks could amount to nothing more than a brief phone call from a community nurse, offering straightforward advice on medication management to older patients, through to referrals to community health providers including GPs and pharmacists.

NHS figures from March this year show that there were 865,625 emergency readmissions to hospital within 30 days of discharge in England last year, with the problem particularly acute amongst elderly patients. Approximately 15 per cent of over-65s are readmitted within 28 days.

Dr James Brown, senior lecturer in Life and Health Sciences at Aston University, said: “Our work shows that a simple service, whereby community nurses attempt to contact older adult patients after they are discharged from hospital, lead to a significant reduction in the number of patients readmitted within a month.

“The combination of Britain’s ageing population and an under-pressure NHS means it is now more important than ever to minimise the costs to our health services caused by unnecessary readmissions. It may seem hard to believe that something as simple as a phone call can have such a major impact, but our evidence suggests that this is so – the NHS could tackle the rise in readmissions by implementing simple, inexpensive telephone services which improve communication with patients.”