Improving older patient care though better flow from hospital to adult social care
Funded by the Vivensa Foundation, this project aims to develop a new econometric model to understand and improve the flow of older patients from hospital into adult social care.
Current ‘bed blocking’ negatively impacts patient health and well-being, particularly older patients, and has knock-on effects on waiting times, which are costly financially to the NHS.
A key problem is the availability of adult social care for these older patients. Attracting and retaining workers in social care is a challenge. The modelling seeks to capture and integrate the factors that will enable smoother exit from hospital and entry to social care.
The co-developed project is intended to be of specific use to a Scottish hospital stroke ward that need to be able to smoothly exit stroke patients into supported care, often home-based.
The research team is Chris Warhurst, Derek Bosworth, and Gianni Anelli Lopez from IER, Jason Madan of Warwick Medical School and Martin Whithead of University Hospital Crosshouse, part of NHS Ayrshire & Arran.
They are supported by Phil Taylor and Beat Baldauf of IER.
Project Team:
Chris Warhurst (Principal Investigator)
Martin Whitehead (University Hospital Crosshouse)
Project Duration:
Aug 2025 - Jan 2026
Project Funder:
