SINGAPORE – About 300 nursing home residents ended up in the emergency department less and reduced their hospital stays as well, after taking part in a pilot programme by Woodlands Hospital (WH).
The secret to its success – having specialist geriatric care within the home so that potential problems can be nipped in the bud.
As a result, unplanned hospitalisations and emergency department visits both decreased by about one-third.
The outcomes have been so positive that the hospital is looking at expanding the programme to other nursing homes in the area to benefit more seniors, beyond those at Ren Ci @ Woodlands.
Under the THRIVE, or Transforming Health and Resilience In Vulnerable Elders, programme, seniors receive specialist geriatric care directly at the nursing home.
Before the home opened in 2024, clinical teams from WH and Ren Ci formed a workgroup with about 12 core members. Weekly meetings were held to discuss the collaboration and, later on, management of individual cases.
Ren Ci’s team would consolidate and present relevant health information of each resident to the WH team for case review and to discuss ways to effectively manage issues and complex health needs.
For instance, some residents could have behavioural issues such as agitation or sleep problems arising from dementia or delirium – a condition in which patients are confused, disoriented and cannot think or remember clearly.
Nursing home staff were educated and trained on how to better manage cases, and are now able to better tease out the reasons behind behavioural issues. They also have better skills to manage a situation by diverting a resident’s focus with different activities, said Ren Ci @ Woodlands assistant nurse clinician Anushiya Rajendran.
Learning to recognise early signs helps avoid issues worsening, said Sharen Lim, WH’s geriatric medicine consultant driving the THRIVE programme.
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