Characteristics of patients referred for assessment of decision‐making capacity in the acute medical setting of an outer‐metropolitan hospital—A retrospective case series

• Published in: Australasian journal on ageing Vol. 39; no. 1; pp. e49 - e54
• Main Authors: Logan, Benignus, Fleury, Aisling, Wong, Lillian, Fraser, Sally, Bernard, Anne, White, Ben
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Australia 01-03-2020
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Cognitive Dysfunction - psychology; Decision Making; dementia; Dementia - psychology; Female; geriatrics; Hospitals, Urban; Humans; Length of Stay; Male; Referral and Consultation; Retrospective Studies; Social Isolation; length of stay; geriatrics; dementia; decision-making
• ISSN: 1440-6381; 1741-6612
• DOI: 10.1111/ajag.12693

Objective
To identify characteristics of older people referred for assessment of decision‐making capacity in the acute hospital setting.
Methods
A retrospective chart audit was undertaken for 98 consecutive medical inpatients referred for capacity assessments between February 2015 and August 2017 in an outer‐metropolitan hospital. The data were analysed using descriptive and univariate analysis.
Results
In this case series, 56% of patients had a diagnosis of dementia. Social isolation was common; 70% were not presently married, and 63% had no community services. For 90% of patients, the referral was to determine the person's capacity to make their own accommodation decisions—usually to return home on discharge. Of those with impaired capacity, 54% were discharged to residential aged care, whilst most who retained capacity were discharged home (73%). Those with impaired capacity were more likely to have a diagnosis of dementia and a prolonged length of stay (both P < 0.001).