Safety of discharge of seniors from the emergency department to the community.

This study investigated the safety of discharge of seniors (aged 65 and over) from Quebec emergency departments (EDs) to the community. Data from a 2006 survey of key informants at 103 Quebec adult non-psychiatric EDs were linked to data on a sample of 172,927 seniors who were discharged home from one of the EDs during the period February 2004-January 2005. During the 30 days after the ED visit, 1.0% of patients died, 5.0% returned to the ED and were admitted to hospital, 16.0% returned to the ED but were not admitted and 29.2% were prescribed a potentially inappropriate medication. Larger, urban EDs treated a higher-risk patient population (older, greater co-morbidity), and these seniors had worse outcomes. A minority of EDs, regardless of their size and the characteristics of patients treated, systematically provided services to improve the safety of discharge. Resources and services need to be improved in EDs, particularly those that serve higher-risk populations (e.g., systematic approaches to the identification and management of high-risk seniors, with appropriate referrals to community services), in the hospital (e.g., increased accessibility to acute care beds) and in the community (e.g., increased accessibility to home care, outpatient geriatric assessment and primary medical care).