Reducing hospital admissions in older care home residents: A 4-year evaluation of the Care Home Innovation Programme (CHIP)

Giebel, Clarissa ORCID: 0000-0002-0746-0566, Akpan, Asangadem, Harvey, Debbie and Chamberlain, Peter (2020) Reducing hospital admissions in older care home residents: A 4-year evaluation of the Care Home Innovation Programme (CHIP) BMC Health Services Research, 20 (1). 94-. ISSN 1472-6963, 1472-6963

Access the full-text of this item by clicking on the Open Access link.

Abstract

Background: Older care home residents frequently attend emergency departments with a high conversion to admissions. For this purpose, a novel Care Home Innovation Programme (CHIP) was introduced with the aim of reducing potentially avoidable hospital admissions by 30%. The aim of this study is to evaluate the implementation of this innovative service in practice. Methods: A total of 32 care homes with 1314 beds in South Sefton, Merseyside were invited to sign up to CHIP which was launched in April 2015 and continued in its entirety until June 2018. As part of the CHIP, care home matrons were introduced, new protocols were developed to address common presentations, a 24-h 7-day a week televideo system installed across all homes, and a quarterly training collaborative brought care homes together to learn and share good practices together. Data on emergency calls and calls resulting in conveyances were recorded over a four-year period, and analysed using frequency analysis. Results: In comparison to the 12 months prior to launch, over a four-year period, implementation of the CHIP resulted in a 15% reduction of emergency calls, and in a 19% reduction of conveyances to hospital. Conclusions: The South Sefton CHIP demonstrated itself an effective programme in reducing conveyances and consequently, hospital admissions of care home residents. This model will be superseded by the enhanced health in care homes being promoted by the NHS Long Term Care Plan.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Care homes, System change, Training, Hospital attendance
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	14 Feb 2020 15:28
Last Modified:	16 Jun 2026 14:39
DOI:	10.1186/s12913-020-4945-9
Open Access URL:	https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/article...
Related Websites:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3075022
Disclaimer:	The University of Liverpool is not responsible for content contained on other websites from links within repository metadata. Please contact us if you notice anything that appears incorrect or inappropriate.