• Gideon A Caplan, Janis Coconis, Neville Board, Allyn Sayers, and Jan Woods.
• Post Acute Care Services, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, Sydney, New South Wales 2031, Australia. g.caplan@unsw.edu.au
• Age Ageing. 2006 Jan 1; 35 (1): 53-60.

Backgrounddelirium is a frequent adverse consequence of hospitalisation for older patients, but there has been little research into its prevention. A recent study of Hospital in the Home (admission substitution) noted less delirium in the home-treated group.Settinga tertiary referral teaching hospital in Sydney, Australia.Methodswe randomised 104 consecutive patients referred for geriatric rehabilitation to be treated in one of two ways, either in Hospital in the Home (early discharge) or in hospital, in a rehabilitation ward. We compared the occurrence of delirium measured by the confusion assessment method. Secondary outcome measures were length of stay, hospital bed days, cost of acute care and rehabilitation, functional independence measure (FIM), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and geriatric depression score (GDS) assessed on discharge and at 1- and 6-month follow-up and patient satisfaction.Resultsthe home group had lower odds of developing delirium during rehabilitation [odds ratio (OR) = 0.17; 95% confidence interval 0.03-0.65], shorter duration of rehabilitation (15.97 versus 23.09 days; P = 0.0164) and used less hospital bed days (20.31 versus 40.09, P < or = 0.0001). The cost was lower for the acute plus rehabilitation phases (7,680 pounds versus 10,598 pounds; P = 0.0109) and the rehabilitation phase alone (2,523 pounds versus 6,100 pounds; P < or = 0.0001). There was no difference in FIM, MMSE or GDS scores. the home group was more satisfied (P = 0.0057).Conclusionshome rehabilitation for frail elderly after acute hospitalisation is a viable option for selected patients and is associated with a lower risk of delirium, greater patient satisfaction, lower cost and more efficient hospital bed use.

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