The Community In-Reach and Care Transition (CIRACT) clinical and cost-effectiveness study: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial
Background Older people represent a significant proportion of patients admitted to hospital. Their care compared to younger patients is more challenging, length of stay is longer, risk of hospital-acquired problems higher and the risk of being re-admitted within 28 days greater. This study aims t...
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| Format: | Article |
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BioMed Central
2015
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30540/ |
| _version_ | 1848794005715812352 |
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| author | Watson, Alison Charlesworth, Lisa Jacob, Ruth Kendrick, Denise Logan, Philippa Marshall, Fiona Montgomery, Alan Sach, Tracey Tan, Wei Walker, Marion Waring, Justin Whitham, Diane Sahota, Opinder |
| author_facet | Watson, Alison Charlesworth, Lisa Jacob, Ruth Kendrick, Denise Logan, Philippa Marshall, Fiona Montgomery, Alan Sach, Tracey Tan, Wei Walker, Marion Waring, Justin Whitham, Diane Sahota, Opinder |
| author_sort | Watson, Alison |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Background
Older people represent a significant proportion of patients admitted to hospital. Their care compared to younger patients is more challenging, length of stay is longer, risk of hospital-acquired problems higher and the risk of being re-admitted within 28 days greater. This study aims to compare a Community In-Reach and Care Transition (CIRACT) service with Traditional Hospital Based rehabilitation (THB-Rehab) provided to the older person. The CIRACT service differs from the THB-rehab service in that they are able to provide more intensive hospital rehabilitation, visiting patients daily, and are able to continue with the patient’s rehabilitation following discharge allowing a seamless, integrated discharge working alongside community providers. A pilot comparing the two services showed that the CIRACT service demonstrated reduced length of stay and reduced re-admission rates when analysed over a four-month period.
Methods/Design
This trial will evaluate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of the CIRACT service, conducted as a randomised controlled trial (RCT) with an integral qualitative mechanism and action study designed to provide the explanatory and theoretical components on how the CIRACT service compares to current practice. The RCT element consists of 240 patients over 70 years of age, being randomised to either the THB therapy group or the CIRACT service following an unplanned hospital admission. The primary outcome will be hospital length of stay from admission to discharge from the general medical elderly care ward. Additional outcome measures including the Barthel Index, Charlson Co-morbidity Scale, EuroQoL-5D and the modified Client Service Receipt Inventory will be assessed at the time of recruitment and repeated at 91 days post-discharge. The qualitative mechanism and action study will involve a systematic programme of organisational profiling, observations of work processes, interviews with key informants and care providers and tracking of participants. In addition, a within-trial economic evaluation will be undertaken comparing the CIRACT and THB-rehab services to determine cost-effectiveness.
Discussion
The outcome of the study will inform clinical decision-making, with respect to allocation of resources linked to hospital discharge planning and re-admissions, in a resource intensive and growing group of patients. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:09:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-30540 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:09:19Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | BioMed Central |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-305402020-05-04T17:02:56Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30540/ The Community In-Reach and Care Transition (CIRACT) clinical and cost-effectiveness study: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial Watson, Alison Charlesworth, Lisa Jacob, Ruth Kendrick, Denise Logan, Philippa Marshall, Fiona Montgomery, Alan Sach, Tracey Tan, Wei Walker, Marion Waring, Justin Whitham, Diane Sahota, Opinder Background Older people represent a significant proportion of patients admitted to hospital. Their care compared to younger patients is more challenging, length of stay is longer, risk of hospital-acquired problems higher and the risk of being re-admitted within 28 days greater. This study aims to compare a Community In-Reach and Care Transition (CIRACT) service with Traditional Hospital Based rehabilitation (THB-Rehab) provided to the older person. The CIRACT service differs from the THB-rehab service in that they are able to provide more intensive hospital rehabilitation, visiting patients daily, and are able to continue with the patient’s rehabilitation following discharge allowing a seamless, integrated discharge working alongside community providers. A pilot comparing the two services showed that the CIRACT service demonstrated reduced length of stay and reduced re-admission rates when analysed over a four-month period. Methods/Design This trial will evaluate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of the CIRACT service, conducted as a randomised controlled trial (RCT) with an integral qualitative mechanism and action study designed to provide the explanatory and theoretical components on how the CIRACT service compares to current practice. The RCT element consists of 240 patients over 70 years of age, being randomised to either the THB therapy group or the CIRACT service following an unplanned hospital admission. The primary outcome will be hospital length of stay from admission to discharge from the general medical elderly care ward. Additional outcome measures including the Barthel Index, Charlson Co-morbidity Scale, EuroQoL-5D and the modified Client Service Receipt Inventory will be assessed at the time of recruitment and repeated at 91 days post-discharge. The qualitative mechanism and action study will involve a systematic programme of organisational profiling, observations of work processes, interviews with key informants and care providers and tracking of participants. In addition, a within-trial economic evaluation will be undertaken comparing the CIRACT and THB-rehab services to determine cost-effectiveness. Discussion The outcome of the study will inform clinical decision-making, with respect to allocation of resources linked to hospital discharge planning and re-admissions, in a resource intensive and growing group of patients. BioMed Central 2015-02-08 Article PeerReviewed Watson, Alison, Charlesworth, Lisa, Jacob, Ruth, Kendrick, Denise, Logan, Philippa, Marshall, Fiona, Montgomery, Alan, Sach, Tracey, Tan, Wei, Walker, Marion, Waring, Justin, Whitham, Diane and Sahota, Opinder (2015) The Community In-Reach and Care Transition (CIRACT) clinical and cost-effectiveness study: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. Trials, 16 (41). pp. 1-11. ISSN 1745-6215 Rehabilitation; In-reach; Community; In-patients; Older people http://www.trialsjournal.com/content/16/1/41 doi:10.1186/s13063-015-0551-2 doi:10.1186/s13063-015-0551-2 |
| spellingShingle | Rehabilitation; In-reach; Community; In-patients; Older people Watson, Alison Charlesworth, Lisa Jacob, Ruth Kendrick, Denise Logan, Philippa Marshall, Fiona Montgomery, Alan Sach, Tracey Tan, Wei Walker, Marion Waring, Justin Whitham, Diane Sahota, Opinder The Community In-Reach and Care Transition (CIRACT) clinical and cost-effectiveness study: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial |
| title | The Community In-Reach and Care Transition (CIRACT) clinical and cost-effectiveness study: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial |
| title_full | The Community In-Reach and Care Transition (CIRACT) clinical and cost-effectiveness study: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial |
| title_fullStr | The Community In-Reach and Care Transition (CIRACT) clinical and cost-effectiveness study: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Community In-Reach and Care Transition (CIRACT) clinical and cost-effectiveness study: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial |
| title_short | The Community In-Reach and Care Transition (CIRACT) clinical and cost-effectiveness study: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial |
| title_sort | community in-reach and care transition (ciract) clinical and cost-effectiveness study: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial |
| topic | Rehabilitation; In-reach; Community; In-patients; Older people |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30540/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30540/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30540/ |