PROJECT 

Beaumont Care in the Home (BIH): Don’t Delay, Get Home Today

 

TEAM:

Vanessa Kelleher, ADON; Aoife O’Brien, CNM 3; Leanne Grehan, CNM 3; Catherine Steffi Swamidhas, CNM 2; Caroline Killeen, RGN

 

LOCATION:

Beaumont Hospital

 

THE PROBLEM:

In April 2022, Beaumont Hospital identified there was significant patient discharge delays associated with the availability of carers in the community.

 

THE SOLUTION:

A dedicated team of 3 Healthcare Assistants (HCA) and 1 CNM was developed to:

• Provide safe and supported timely discharge for patients

• Reduce length of stay in hospital

• Reduce the use of transitional care

 

Beaumont Care in the Home now consists of 10 HCA’s covering a seven-day service (Monday – Sunday), 8am-8pm. The service has gone from implementation stage to scale up stage. As of the 1/11/24, Beaumont Care in the Home has supported 297 discharges in comparison to 74 patients in the first year of pilot 2022.

 

BENEFITS:

​

KPI 1 - Bed Saving Days:

• 2024 to date: 4,178 bed days

• 2023: 4,494 bed days

• 2022: 2,053  bed days

​

KPI 2 - Referrals per Month;

• Patients reviewed daily: >8

• Patients reviewed per month: >140

• Suitable patients: >60

• Admitted to service: >30

​

KPI 3 - Discharged from Service:

• 2023: 96% successfully discharged to HSE approved homecare agencies.

• 2024 (Jan- Aug): 98% successfully discharged to HSE approved homecare agencies.

• 2024 (Jan-Aug): 19/223 failed discharges. 18 of whom were medically unwell and needed admission, & 1 patient requiring long term care placement.

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Beaumont Care in the Home Service has also recently expanded its remit and collaborated with the Orthopaedic Early Support Discharge (ESD) Team and Stroke ESD teams in which a temporary Home Care Package (HCP) is provided while they received Multidisciplinary team input at home. This temporary HCP enables patients to return to their baseline following hospital admission, thus avoiding the need to apply for a long-term HCP. We have also collaborated with the palliative care team and expedited supported discharges for palliative patients. The service also has an ongoing relationship with the FITT Team in the Emergency Department, and HSE Pathfinder Service and we continue to provide HCPs to patients to avoid social admissions.​​