Quality of acute care for persons with cognitive impairment and their families: A scoping review.

BACKGROUND: An increasing number of older persons with cognitive impairment use inpatient services for co-occurring acute illness. Research has demonstrated that persons with cognitive impairment face more adverse health outcomes during hospitalization than their age counterparts without cognitive impairment. As hospitals tend to be ill equipped to meet the complex care needs of this population, various initiatives underscore the need to better utilize existing evidence to improve quality of care.

OBJECTIVES: To map the extent of knowledge about quality of acute care in inpatient settings, and to synthesize knowledge on strategies to improve quality care for persons with cognitive impairment and their families.

DESIGN: A scoping review using Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework.

DATA SOURCES: CINAHL and Medline were searched and reference lists of pertinent articles screened to identify publications regarding acute care for persons with cognitive impairment.

REVIEW METHODS: Two reviewers independently screened and identified publications based on eligibility criteria. Publications were included if they targeted acute care issues relating to persons with cognitive impairment 65 years or older, their family members, or health professionals caring for them, and were published after 2000 in English or German. Publications were read and data were extracted using a predefined template. Thematic analysis was conducted by two reviewers.

RESULTS: Of the 1445 identified publications, 66 were included. Quality of acute inpatient services pertained to structural (such as staff capacity and knowledge) and process dimensions (such as forming a caring relationship, assessing and intervening). Strategies identified to improve care quality included interventions at the point of care, such as specific tools and specialist roles to improve patient outcomes, as well as educational and training interventions to enable staff to care for this patient group.

CONCLUSIONS: There is a discrepancy between clearly defined best practice for persons with cognitive impairment utilising inpatient services, and the quality of care actually experienced by patients, family members, and staff. Research reveals a sobering picture of inadequate care and manifold challenges encountered by this patient group, family members and staff alike. Promising strategies to improve care quality target health professionals' knowledge and capacity to work with this group and include specific tools and models of care, such as specialist roles and units. Organisation-wide efforts to ensure quality care for this patient group are needed, as is further research to determine which implementation and intervention strategies achieve the most beneficial outcomes for all involved.