Survival of patients discharged to long term care

Data on the life expectancy of elderly people in long term care facilities will be important for effective service planning care. To date there are no such data from an Irish perspective. A random sample of patients discharged to long term care between 31st 2003 from a single Dublin hospital was studied. Death by January 1st 2005 was ascertained through the register of births survival was calculated and factors associated with mortality were determined in a logistic regression. Mean (sd) age was 82 female. Median survival was 30.3 (95%CI 22.4-45.0) months (mean Irish life expectancy at this age is about 78 months). Three associated with death by 2 years: age (Odds ratio 1.11 [95%CI 1.05-1.17, F ratio 15.1, p=0.0001] per year), male gender (Odds F ratio 5.2, p=0.024]) and discharge to continuing care (Odds ratio 1.96 [1.05-3.68, F ratio 4.4, p=0.037]). These results (data) show that patients discharged to long term care are a frail group with a reduced life expectancy. Encouragingly survival year) was similar to that seen in other countries. Data on nursing home survival will allow more accurate planning of long term help monitor quality of care.