Long Stay Care Of Older People

Background

This is the tenth edition of the statistical publication formerly known as Scottish Health Resource Utilisation Groups (SHRUGs) and Scottish Care Resource Utilisation Group (SCRUGs). The report contains information on the care needs and dependency of patients in long stay hospitals and residents in care homes. The report also contains information relating to the Single Shared assessment-Indicator of Relative Need (SSA-IoRN). The SSA-IoRN enables clients receiving services in the community to be classified into groups with similar levels of relative need.

It is intended that the report will be of interest to all those involved in the delivery and management of care for older people in long term residential care and in their own homes.

Summary:

This report contains information on the care needs and dependency of older people in a range of settings.
Older people in long stay hospital wards generally had markedly higher care and dependency needs than residents in care homes. Around 53% of the hospital patients surveyed were classed as high dependency in the latest year. 15% of residents in the care homes surveyed in eight NHS board areas in Scotland were classed as having high dependency. (Chapter 4, Table 6, p14; Chapter 6, Figure 19, p25)
Groupings of care and dependency levels of long stay older people in hospital vary between NHS Boards. The proportion of patients falling into the highest dependency group ranges from 4% to 69%. (Chapter 4, Figure 8, p16)
A difference in general care needs exists between the NHS long stay care of the elderly and care homes. An illustration of this is that 45% of older people in hospital wards had a need for special care as defined by the SHRUGs questionnaire; for care homes the figure was 15%. (Chapter 4, Table 7, p16; Chapter 6, Figure 20, p26)
The proportion of hospital patients classified within the highest dependency group has increased from 24% in the year ending March 2002 to 35% in the period between May 2006 and July 2007. (Chapter 4, Table 4, p11)
A substantially higher percentage of hospital patients awaiting placement fell into the lowest dependency group compared to those not awaiting placement. (Chapter 4, Figure 16, p22)
The percentage of patients with needs for special care/and or clinically complex treatments has increased from 34% in the year ending March 2002 to 49% in the period between May 2006 and July 2007. (Chapter 4, Table 7, p16)