Objective: To determine whether providing elderly alternate level of care (ALC) patients with interdisciplinary care on a transitional care unit (TCU) achieves better clinical outcomes and lowers costs compared with providing them with standard hospital care.
Design: Before-and-after structured retrospective chart audit.
Setting: St Joseph’s Hospital in Comox, BC.
Participants: One hundred thirty-five consecutively admitted patients aged 70 years and older with ALC designation during 5-month periods before (n = 49) and after (n = 86) the opening of an on-site TCU.
Main outcome measures: Length of stay, discharge disposition, complications of the acute and ALC portions of the patients’ hospital stays, activities of daily living (mobility, transfers, and urinary continence), psychotropic medications and vitamin D prescriptions, and ALC patient care costs, as well as annual hospital savings, were examined.
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