Abstract
Background
Older women have higher levels of frailty resulting in disability and reduced quality
of life. Presentation to an Emergency Department (ED) is an opportunity to address
frailty and provide tailored interventions to promote function. An ED allied health
team integrated frailty assessment and interventions into care through a ‘Frailty
Intervention Team’ (FIT) program.
Methods
A prospective study informed by the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation,
Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework to evaluate the FIT program tailored to female older
adults. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the FIT program over a three-month
period and use the findings to further develop the intervention.
Results
Over three-months, 192 older females (>70 years) were identified with mild frailty and discharged directly home. Ninety percent
were offered the FIT program with 83.3 % accepting all recommended frailty management
strategies. Ninety percent of patients were satisfied with the FIT program, however
staff and patient barriers to provision of frailty services were identified.
Conclusions
The FIT program was largely adopted by staff and accepted by older female patients
with mild frailty in the ED. However, program effectiveness was limited by gaps in
communication about frailty in the ED and implementation of frailty management strategies
after discharge.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 23, 2023
Accepted:
February 17,
2023
Received in revised form:
February 9,
2023
Received:
December 13,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2023 College of Emergency Nursing Australasia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
