Using the concept of frailty - which captures vulnerability – experts have created a risk score that will help identify older people who are more vulnerable.

The research, which is published in The Lancet, was a collaboration between Newcastle University, the Nuffield Trust and the universities of Leicester, Southampton and the London School of Economics.

Evaluating outcomes

The ‘risk score’ will help commissioners and hospitals identify this group of people, evaluate their outcomes and improve services to be more responsive to their needs.

Professor Stuart Parker, from the Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University, is a co-author of the study.

He said: “Many older people attend hospitals throughout the UK every day, but some are more vulnerable than others.”

“The ‘Hospital Frailty Risk Score’ uses routinely available information to identify older people at significantly increased risk of harms, longer stays in hospital and readmission following discharge from hospital.”

“It will help us to ensure that our services identify and meet the needs of the most vulnerable inpatients.”

The research, funded by NIHR, is published in The Lancet.

Reference

Development and validation of a Hospital Frailty Risk Score focusing on older people in acute care settings using electronic hospital records: an observational study

Thomas Gilbert et al

The Lancet. Doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30668-8