2021 Volume 25 Issue 2 Pages 39-50
Potentially avoidable hospitalizations in acute care hospitals should be prevented to improve the quality of life of residents and to use medical resources in fee-based homes for the elderly efficiently. The purpose of this study is to clarify the perceptions of facility managers of fee-based homes for the elderly regarding the effect and feasibility of initiating interventions to prevent potentially avoidable emergency transfers and hospitalizations. A self-administered questionnaire was mailed to administrators at 150 facilities in a city of the metropolitan area; responses were received from 55 facilities (36.7%). The effectiveness of the interventions developed by the authors based on the literature review was generally highly recognized by the administrators (67.3〜87.3%). All interventions were perceived to be more effective than feasible. The interventions that were recognized as particularly effective were “communication tools for information cooperation between nurses and doctors” (87.3%), which were also recognized as more effective in facilities with a high average level of nursing care (p = 0.039). On the other hand, the intervention that was recognized as being less feasible was “employment of nurses with knowledge and skills in elderly care (20.0%).” These findings suggest that it is necessary to increase the feasibility of introducing interventions and conducting intervention studies in fee-based homes for the elderly in Japan to prevent potentially avoidable emergency transfers and hospitalizations.
