Patients With Dementia Less Likely to Receive Intensive Care After Hospital Transfer

THURSDAY, Jan. 4, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with Alzheimer disease and other related dementias (ADRD) are less likely to receive intensive care unit admission or procedures after transfer from an emergency department to a tertiary care hospital, according to a study recently published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring.

Nancy Glober, M.D., from Indiana University in Indianapolis, and colleagues reviewed electronic medical records to describe the impact of interhospital transfer on older adults with and without ADRD. The analysis included older adults with at least one emergency department visit who were transferred to a tertiary care hospital.

The researchers found that patients with ADRD more often received a geriatrics or palliative care consult. Furthermore, they were significantly less likely to be full code at admission or to be discharged home. Within 48 hours of transfer, patients living with ADRD less often received intensive care or a specialist procedure (odds ratio, 1.87).

"Our findings, which show that older adults with dementia were less likely to receive intensive care or a medical procedure within the first two days of transfer, highlight the need to focus very closely on the patient with dementia and their family to determine if transfer provides optimal care and to build out our infrastructure in a way that supports that," senior author Malaz Boustani, M.D., M.P.H., also from Indiana University, said in a statement.

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