home-care-emergency-department-visit - Health Quality Ontario (HQO)

INDICATOR NAME

Name

Emergency Department Visits by Home Care Patients within 30 Days of Leaving Hospital

Alternate Name

Percentage of new patients receiving publicly funded home care who had an unplanned emergency department visit within 30 days of leaving hospital, among those referred to home care from hospital or within 7 days of discharge

INDICATOR DESCRIPTION

Description

This indicator shows the percentage of new patients receiving publicly funded home care who had an unplanned emergency department visit within 30 days of leaving hospital, among those referred to home care from hospital or within 7 days of discharge.

Timely follow-up after hospital discharge can help prevent the return of home care patients to the emergency department.

A lower percentage is better.

HQO Reporting tool/product

Public reporting

Dimension

Efficient

Type

Outcome

DEFINITION AND SOURCE INFORMATION

Unit of Measurement

Percentage

Calculation Methods

Numerator divided by denominator times 100

Numerator (short description i.e. not inclusions/exclusions)

The number of unscheduled emergency department visits by home care patients newly referred to home care services within 30 days of initial hospital discharge

Denominator (short description i.e. not inclusions/exclusions)

The number of patients newly referred to home care from hospital who were discharged from hospital and received their first home care service visit within the time period of interest

Adjustment (risk, age/sex standardization)- generalized

None

Data Source

Discharge Abstract Database (DAD), Home Care Database (HCD), National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS), Registered Persons Database (RPDB)

Data provided to HQO by

Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES)

Reported Levels of comparability /stratifications (defined)

Province, Region

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION

Caveats and Limitations

The emergency department visit may occur before or after the first home care service visit.

Comments Summary

Emergency department visits are counted as up to 30 days from the discharge of the index hospitalization, not including the day of discharge. This can extend into the next fiscal year. This indicator is reported for new home care patients only (referrals only occur for patients not already receiving more care). This indicator assumes that referrals with a referral date between hospital admission date and seven days after hospital discharge are referrals from hospital. It does not capture the location of the referral. Although unlikely, a patient can be counted in the denominator more than once in the same fiscal year.