Emergency department use by nursing home residents in Flanders: from first data explorations to evidence-based quality indicators

Nursing home (NH) residents are frequently transferred to emergency departments (EDs) to exclude acute disease or injury. However, these ED visits are often considered potentially avoidable and an important risk for redundant diagnostic tests, unnecessary hospitalizations and preventable adverse events, which are a burden for the NH residents and the healthcare budget. As this ever-increasing issue has never been studied in Flanders, we will focus on three objectives. First, we will explore characteristics and outcomes of NH residents admitted to Flemish EDs. Second, we will use established methods to estimate the prevalence, characteristics and costs of potentially avoidable ED admissions in the population of interest. Third, based on objectives one and two, we will develop evidence-based quality indicators for monitoring ED transfers and ED-based care of NH residents in Flanders. Findings of this project will be the fundament of future feasibility, effectiveness and implementation studies.

Keywords:Nursing home residents, Emergency department, Quality indicators

Disciplines:Emergency medicine, Geriatric nursing, Residential health care, Quality assurance