Discharge to assess: An evaluation of three case studies in the southeast of England to inform service improvement

Background Discharge to Assess (D2A) emerged as a critical process during the COVID-19 pandemic facilitating patient flow within hospitals, however research on the post-discharge community services of this pathway remains limited. We conducted an evaluation to examine the impacts, capacity, processes and barriers associated with D2A and to identify best practice across three sites in the southeast of England. Methods We interviewed 29 commissioners, providers and staff members involved in the delivery of D2A pathways within three Health and Care Partnerships. Framework analysis of the collected data revealed three prominent themes: the commissioning of services encompassing funding, structure, culture, and expected outcomes; multidisciplinary collaboration including staff skills, team connections, and coordination; and information and knowledge exchange such as assessment methods, record management, and availability of operational insights. Results 62 specific enablers and blockers to effective D2A practice emerged. Discussion These findings supported the development of a comprehensive service improvement toolkit. Conclusion Five recommendations are proposed: 1. Examination of pathways against the 62 enablers and blockers to identify and resolve pathway obstacles; 2. Establish a local operational policy accessible to all providers; 3. Enhance coordination and communication among service providers, patients and carers; 4. Strengthen oversight of service user flow; 5. Develop a consistent Patient Reported Outcomes Measure to facilitate feedback and service enhancements for individuals discharged from urgent care pathways

VIVALDI ASCOT and Ethnography Study: protocol for a mixed-methods longitudinal study to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 and other respiratory infection outbreaks on care home residents' quality of life and psychosocial well-being

INTRODUCTION: Older adults in care homes experienced some of the highest rates of mortality from SARS-CoV-2 globally and were subjected to strict and lengthy non-pharmaceutical interventions, which severely impacted their daily lives. The VIVALDI ASCOT and Ethnography Study aims to assess the impact of respiratory outbreaks on care home residents' quality of life, psychological well-being, loneliness, functional ability and use of space. This study is linked to the VIVALDI-CT, a randomised controlled trial of staff's asymptomatic testing and sickness payment support in care homes (ISRCTN13296529). METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This is a mixed-methods, longitudinal study of care home residents (65+) in Southeast England. Group 1-exposed includes residents from care homes with a recent COVID-19 or other respiratory infection outbreak. Group 2-non-exposed includes residents from care homes without a recent outbreak. The study has two components: (a) a mixed-methods longitudinal face-to-face interviews with 100 residents (n=50 from group 1 and n=50 from group 2) to assess the impact of outbreaks on residents' quality of life, psychological well-being, loneliness, functional ability and use of space at time 1 (study baseline) and time 2 (at 3-4 weeks after the first visit); (b) ethnographic observations in communal spaces of up to 10 care homes to understand how outbreaks and related restrictions to the use of space and social activities impact residents' well-being. The study will interview only care home residents who have the mental capacity to consent. Data will be compared and integrated to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of outbreaks on residents' quality of life and well-being. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The VIVALDI ASCOT and Ethnography Study obtained ethical approval from the Health Research Authority (HRA) Social Care REC (24/IEC08/0001). Only residents with the capacity to consent will be included in the study. Findings will be published in scientific journals

Care Workers and Managers’ Experiences of Implementing Infection Control Guidance in an Epidemic Context: A Qualitative Study in the South East of England, during the COVID-19 Prevaccination Era

The national response to COVID-19 has had a severe impact on adult social care settings, with high mortality amongst people receiving and providing care in England. Care workers had to rapidly adapt to new infection control measures to protect themselves, their colleagues, and the people receiving care. Infection control in residential and domiciliary care is always complex, but COVID-19 infection control measures impacted exceptionally on care workers’ working and everyday lives. We undertook qualitative interviews with care workers and managers (n = 10) in residential and domiciliary care for older people in the Southeast England during the first wave of the pandemic to understand their experiences, solutions, and concerns to implement guidance in practice. Data were analysed using framework analysis, and the following eight themes were identified: (1) Increasing visibility and support for the sector; (2) the impact of negative messaging about the sector; (3) feelings of isolation; (4) accessibility and usability of guidance; (5) social care staff as agents in producing and sharing good practice; (6) managing expectations and the impact of conflicting messages in the media; (7) improving communication with hospitals; and (8) problems in the early pandemic. The findings reveal widespread concerns for the marginalisation of the sector in the policy response and the inadequacy of infection control guidance. Guidance would benefit from a better understanding of domiciliary and residential care settings. This might involve the following steps: (a) coproduction of guidance with adult social care stakeholders, including those in direct-care roles and (b) a shift away from a clinical model of infection control towards a more flexible approach that attends to the inherent variability of care settings

Benefits of glucocorticoids in non-ambulant boys/men with Duchenne muscular dystrophy: A multicentric longitudinal study using the Performance of Upper Limb test

The aim of this study was to establish the possible effect of glucocorticoid treatment on upper limb function in a cohort of 91 non-ambulant DMD boys and adults of age between 11 and 26 years. All 91 were assessed using the Performance of Upper Limb test. Forty-eight were still on glucocorticoid after loss of ambulation, 25 stopped steroids at the time they lost ambulation and 18 were GC naive or had steroids while ambulant for less than a year. At baseline the total scores ranged between 0 and 74 (mean 41.20). The mean total scores were 47.92 in the glucocorticoid group, 36 in those who stopped at loss of ambulation and 30.5 in the naive group (p <0.001). The 12-month changes ranged between -20 and 4 (mean -4.4). The mean changes were -3.79 in the glucocorticoid group, -5.52 in those who stopped at loss of ambulation and -4.44 in the naive group. This was more obvious in the patients between 12 and 18 years and at shoulder and elbow levels. Our findings suggest that continuing glucocorticoids throughout teenage years and adulthood after loss of ambulation appears to have a beneficial effect on upper limb function. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V

Timed rise from floor as a predictor of disease progression in Duchenne muscular dystrophy: An observational study

The role of timed items, and more specifically, of the time to rise from the floor, has been reported as an early prognostic factor for disease progression and loss of ambulation. The aim of our study was to investigate the possible effect of the time to rise from the floor test on the changes observed on the 6MWT over 12 months in a cohort of ambulant Duchenne boys.A total of 487 12-month data points were collected from 215 ambulant Duchenne boys. The age ranged between 5.0 and 20.0 years (mean 8.48 ±2.48 DS).The results of the time to rise from the floor at baseline ranged from 1.2 to 29.4 seconds in the boys who could perform the test. 49 patients were unable to perform the test at baseline and 87 at 12 month The 6MWT values ranged from 82 to 567 meters at baseline. 3 patients lost the ability to perform the 6mwt at 12 months. The correlation between time to rise from the floor and 6MWT at baseline was high (r = 0.6, p<0.01).Both time to rise from the floor and baseline 6MWT were relevant for predicting 6MWT changes in the group above the age of 7 years, with no interaction between the two measures, as the impact of time to rise from the floor on 6MWT change was similar in the patients below and above 350 m. Our results suggest that, time to rise from the floor can be considered an additional important prognostic factor of 12 month changes on the 6MWT and, more generally, of disease progression

How can risk of COVID-19 transmission be minimised in domiciliary care for older people: development, parameterisation and initial results of a simple mathematical model

This paper proposes and analyses a stochastic model for the spread of an infectious disease transmitted between clients and care workers in the UK domiciliary (home) care setting. Interactions between clients and care workers are modelled using specially generated networks, with network parameters reflecting realistic patterns of care needs and visit allocation. These networks are then used to simulate and SEIR-type epidemic dynamics with different numbers of infectious and recovery stages. The results indicate that with the same overall capacity provided by care workers, the minimum peak proportion of infection, and the smallest overall size of infection are achieved for the highest proportion of overlap between visit allocation, i.e. when care workers have the highest chances of being allocated a visit to the same client they have visited before. An intuitive explanation of this is that while providing the required care coverage, maximising overlap in visit allocation reduces the possibility of an infectious care worker inadvertently spreading the infection to other clients. The model is generic and can be adapted to any directly transmitted infectious disease, such as, more recently, COVID-19, provided accurate estimates of disease parameters can be obtained from real data

VIVALDI ASCOT and Ethnography Study : protocol for a mixed-methods longitudinal study to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 and other respiratory infection outbreaks on care home residents’ quality of life and psychosocial well-being

Introduction Older adults in care homes experienced some of the highest rates of mortality from SARS-CoV-2 globally and were subjected to strict and lengthy non-pharmaceutical interventions, which severely impacted their daily lives. The VIVALDI ASCOT and Ethnography Study aims to assess the impact of respiratory outbreaks on care home residents’ quality of life, psychological well-being, loneliness, functional ability and use of space. This study is linked to the VIVALDI-CT, a randomised controlled trial of staff’s asymptomatic testing and sickness payment support in care homes (ISRCTN13296529). Methods and analysis This is a mixed-methods, longitudinal study of care home residents (65+) in Southeast England. Group 1—exposed includes residents from care homes with a recent COVID-19 or other respiratory infection outbreak. Group 2—non-exposed includes residents from care homes without a recent outbreak. The study has two components: (a) a mixed-methods longitudinal face-to-face interviews with 100 residents (n=50 from group 1 and n=50 from group 2) to assess the impact of outbreaks on residents’ quality of life, psychological well-being, loneliness, functional ability and use of space at time 1 (study baseline) and time 2 (at 3–4 weeks after the first visit); (b) ethnographic observations in communal spaces of up to 10 care homes to understand how outbreaks and related restrictions to the use of space and social activities impact residents’ well-being. The study will interview only care home residents who have the mental capacity to consent. Data will be compared and integrated to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of outbreaks on residents’ quality of life and well-being. Ethics and dissemination The VIVALDI ASCOT and Ethnography Study obtained ethical approval from the Health Research Authority (HRA) Social Care REC (24/IEC08/0001). Only residents with the capacity to consent will be included in the study. Findings will be published in scientific journals

Upper limb function in Duchenne muscular dystrophy: 24 month longitudinal data

The aim of the study was to establish 24 month changes in upper limb function using a revised version of the performance of upper limb test (PUL 2.0) in a large cohort of ambulant and non-ambulant boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and to identify possible trajectories of progression. Of the 187 patients studied, 87 were ambulant (age range: 7\u201315.8 years), and 90 non-ambulant (age range: 9.08\u201324.78). The total scores changed significantly over time (p&lt;0.001). Non-ambulant patients had lower total scores at baseline (mean 19.7) when compared to the ambulant ones (mean 38.4). They also had also a bigger decrease in total scores over 24 months compared to the ambulant boys (4.36 vs 2.07 points). Multivariate model analysis showed that the Performance of Upper Limb changes reflected the entry level and ambulation status, that were independently associated to the slope of Performance of Upper Limb changes. This information will be of help both in clinical practice and at the time of designing clinical trials