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Older people admitted to hospital in an emergency often have prolonged inpatient stays that worsen their outcomes, increase health-care costs, and reduce bed availability. Growing evidence suggests that the biopsychosocial complexity of their problems, which include cognitive impairment, depression, anxiety, multiple medical illnesses, and care needs resulting from functional dependency, prolongs hospital stays by making medical treatment less efficient and the planning of post-discharge care more difficult. We aimed to assess the effects of enhancing older inpatients' care with Proactive Integrated Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (PICLP) in The HOME Study. We have previously described the benefits of PICLP reported by patients and clinicians. In this Article, we report the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of PICLP-enhanced care, compared with usual care alone, in reducing time in hospital.
Sharpe et al. (Sat,) studied this question.