Too Many Avoidable Hospital Admissions of Dementia Patients

The Care Quality Commission has recently released a report which unveils a number of alarming statistics relating to the care of people with Dementia in England. The report concluded that the care system in England- including care homes and hospitals- is struggling to cope with the demands of the rising number of people being diagnosed with Dementia.

One of the main findings of the report was that people with dementia, who live in a care home, were more likely to be admitted to hospital for an avoidable reason, than those without dementia. The most common reasons for admission were  issues such as

• urinary infection
• dehydration
• pressure ulcers
• pneumonia and other low respiratory tract infections
• malnutrition
• fractures

Most of the above ailments could have been prevented with better care.

[quote style=”boxed” float=”right”]CQC chief executive David Behan said: “The people in charge of care homes and hospitals must work better, individually and together to ensure the right services are in place.[/quote] The Alzheimer’s Society, on reviewing the report, stated that they believe this to be an issue with training, as care home staff often aren’t trained to work with people with Dementia, and so can’t recognise behavioural warning signs that could indicate a problem.

The report claimed that adult social care services are struggling to care for people with dementia, so pass on the problems to hospitals, where they aren’t being resolved. In almost a third of hospital admissions of people with dementia, there was no record of the person’s dementia, despite dementia having been recorded in the past; the trend being more pronounced for elective than emergency admission.

To improve the care which is given to people with Dementia, better training of staff, across the whole care system is needed.

The University Hospital of Bristol has made improvements by placing Dementia Champions in all clinical areas, from an array of backgrounds from porters to nurses. Additionally, they hold two study days per year to share learning amongst staff members and departments and to discuss new developments in research and care standards.

The hospital also recognised the importance of improving environmental cues for people with Dementia and have installed specially designed clocks and calendars in order to help orientate patients.