Promoting shorter hospital stays in older people
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Shorter hospital stays in older people: a longitudinal qualitative study of barriers and facilitators
IRAS ID
286658
Contact name
Helen Smith
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 29 days
Research summary
Breaking the trend of increasing delayed transfers of care (DToC) in older people, from hospital to home or other community setting, is a priority for NHS England. The causes of delays are many and complex and will require more than incremental service improvements. Any system wide effort to reduce DToC for older people is inevitably embedded within a local socio-cultural context and a system of caregivers (family and others) that support older patients within and out of hospital. This longitudinal qualitative study will gather older people’s and caregiver’s thoughts and feelings about hospital stays and delays in discharge and identify barriers to and facilitators of shorter hospital stays. The findings will help identify knowledge gaps or misconceptions and will be used to develop persuasive messages around shorter hospital stays. A public health intervention using these messages will be co-developed to help drive older patients’ and families’ decisions to seek earlier discharge and shorter hospital stays.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/NW/0478
Date of REC Opinion
3 Feb 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion