The Scottish Government

Title

Percentage of people aged 65 & over who are admitted as an emergency to hospital twice or more within a year.

National Indicator/Target

Reduce the proportion of people aged 65 and over admitted as emergency inpatients two or more times in a single year.

Brief Description

A reduction in this indicator is expected to represent general improvements in health for over 65's in addition to more proactive care and management of conditions in the community.

Strategic Objective(s) to Which Indicator Relates

This target informs progress in relation to the Healthier and the Safer & Stronger Strategic Objectives.

More Detailed Definitions

Definitions of Keywords

The number of patients (65+), admitted, for any reason, two or more times in one year, as an emergency to acute specialties.

Evidence Source

ISD Linked SMR01 records.

This includes all acute hospital admissions but excludes admission to psychiatric and geriatric long stay hospital facilities.

Baseline and Past Trends

The percentage of over 65s admitted to hospital as an emergency more than once within the year has been 4.5% in each year since 2004, after climbing gradually from 4% in 1998.

Chart: Percentage of population aged 65 and over with 2 or more emergency admissions to hospital within one year, 1997/98 to 2006/07

Source: ISD Scotland, SMR01 linked data

Methodology

Numerator: number of patients (65+), admitted, for any reason, two or more times in one year, as an emergency to acute specialties. The year is measured from 1 April to 31 March.

Denominator: General Register Office mid year population estimates for people aged 65 and over.

Data Ownership and Quality Assurance

These are National Statistics derived from data collected on discharges from non-obstetric and non-psychiatric hospitals ( SMR01) in Scotland. The basic unit of analysis for these figures is a continuous stay in hospital. Probability matching methods have been used to link together individual SMR01 hospitals episodes for each patient, thereby creating "linked" patient histories. Only emergency admissions have been included.

Publication of Data

Data are available on the ISD website at:

www.isdscotland.org/isd/3838.html