CADENZA Community Project confirms transitional care help reduce elderly's hospital readmission rate

6 July 2010

Although the Government's elderly care policy is aimed at encouraging senior citizens to age at home, many spend repeated periods in hospital due to inadequate management of medications after discharge, poor rehabilitation skills or insufficient social support.

To enhance the self-efficacy of elderly patients once they leave hospital and reduce the unplanned readmission rate, CADENZA: A Jockey Club Initiative for Seniors has launched a two-year community project entitled Effect of a Health-social Partnership - Transitional Care Model for Post-discharged Elderly (HSP-TCM).

Today (6 July), CADENZA representatives revealed the results of the two-year study.  It highlights the importance of transitional care for discharged elderly patients, which can enhance their health knowledge and improve their self efficacy.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club's Executive Director, Charities, Legal & Corporate Secretariat, Douglas So, noted the city's growing ageing population trend, which will mean that one in every four people will be aged over 65 in 20 years' time.

"I hope the Government and the medical and social sectors alike will support this project and establish support services for post-discharged elderly people, as well as make use of the project's teaching kits for their transitional care," he commented.  "This will help extend the project to more districts and benefit more seniors, so that they can live happily in the community.  It will also reduce their visits to hospital and thus the cost to public medical services."

Launched in 2008, HSP-TCM is a two-year collaborative pilot project amongst the Salvation Army, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and seven non-governmental organisations.  An initial survey was conducted with 554 post-discharged elderly patients from Queen Elizabeth Hospital, of whom half received a 28-day care service offered by nurses and volunteers prior to discharge.  Among this group, only 7.8 per cent required readmission to hospital, compared with 19 per cent among the other half who received no transitional care service.  This improvement of nearly 60 per cent shows that transitional care can significantly enhance patients' quality of life and self efficacy, hence reducing their readmission rate and medical expenses.

The project has also provided training for 150 volunteers, including home safety and health knowledge, as well as enabling elderly and community groups to receive information on psychological issues.  With the help of the volunteers, elderly patients are able to enhance their self efficacy when returning to the community.  The service model and teaching kit are expected to help the medical and social sectors provide training to more nurses and volunteers in the future.

CADENZA: A Jockey Club Initiative for Seniors is a project launched by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust with a donation of HK$380 million in 2006.  The project aims at nurturing academic leadership in gerontology and changing the mindset and attitude of the general public through a range of training and public education programmes.  Cross-sectional collaboration between organisations and the implementation of innovative elderly services and programmes are also encouraged in order to bring about a new mode of elderly care services to prepare for a rapidly ageing society.  Details of CADENZA are available at www.cadenza.hk.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club

Founded in 1884, The Hong Kong Jockey Club has become one of Hong Kong's best known and respected organisations, providing the public with world-class sporting entertainment as well as being the city's major non-Government community benefactor, now donating more than HK$1 billion a year to charitable and community projects.  It has been a part of Hong Kong through good times and bad, sharing the city's growth and development with its people, and is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for future generations.