Does Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) have a role in UK care homes?

UK care home residents are frail, dependent and multimorbid. General practitioners (GPs) provide their healthcare but there is evidence that existing provision fails to meet their needs. Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) comprises comprehensive multidisciplinary assessment, goal setting and frequent review. This thesis considers a possible role for CGA in UK care homes through three research projects. The Care Home Literature Review (CHoLiR) was a systematic mapping review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in care homes. It found no evidence supporting CGA as a whole but described some CGA components supported by RCTs: advanced care planning; interventions to reduce prescribing; staff education around dementia and end-of-life; calcium/vitamin D and alendronate in preventing fractures and osteoporosis; vaccination/neuraminidase inhibitors in preventing influenza; functional incidental and bladder training for incontinence; and risperidone/olanzapine for agitation. The Care Home Outcome Study (CHOS) was a longitudinal cohort study recording dependency, cognition, behaviour, diagnoses, prescribing, nutrition and healthcare resource use in 227 residents across 11 care homes over six months. It reported high levels of dependency, cognitive impairment, malnutrition, multimorbidity and frequent behavioural disturbance. Polypharmacy and prescribing errors were common. Variability between homes and individuals was significant for most baseline and outcome measures. Staff Interviews in Care Homes (STICH) was a qualitative interview study of 32 staff working with care homes including: GPs; care home managers and nurses; NHS community nurses and specialist practitioners. It described care defined by discontinuity and lack-of-anticipation; driven by communication failure, inadequate training and expertise in frail older patients, and arbitrary boundaries between care homes and the NHS which interfered with care. Using the findings of these studies, the author proposes a model of care which is multidisciplinary, guided by comprehensive assessment, reinforced by frequent review and delivered by experts in the care of frail older patients: CGA has a role in UK care homes