Understanding patient experience on the Older Person's Acute Medical Unit (OPAMU) and the acute frailty pathway at UHW.

Introduction:

The older population are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases, requiring more frequent hospital admissions, therefore, in University Hospital of Wales there is a dedicated Older Persons Acute Medical Unit (OPAMU). The OPAMU, opened in 2023, admits frail patients directly from the Emergency (ED) and Acute Medicine (AM) Departments for comprehensive geriatric assessment before discharge or onward hospital stay.

Main objective: To understand how our patients felt throughout different steps of their journey to the OPAMU. Secondary objective: To assess how the patient experience has changed since the last time feedback was collected in 2022.

Methods:

We designed a questionnaire tailored to reveal patient experience across a variety of aspects of their journey on the OPAMU. This included broad questions about their assessment in ED/AM, comfort, and treatment, and detailed questions about their pain needs, discharge planning and communication on the ward.

Results:

We received 18 responses and participants answered very positively. 100% felt comfortable on the ward, 94% felt listened to and informed on their treatment plan; 89% felt their pain needs were met, found staff respectful, and felt appropriately prepared for discharge, by answering “agree” or “strongly agree”.

There was a statistically significant increase in positive responses to participant comfort (78% vs 53%), patient admission (44% vs 16%), and being prepared for discharge (89% vs 39%), compared to the study in 2022 (all p<0.05). Additionally, there was an increased positive response to participant experience of treatment (72% vs 68%) and communication with staff (72% vs 53%).

Conclusions:

Our study revealed that the OPAMU is an overwhelmingly positive experience for older persons requiring specialist geriatric care. Whilst understanding the limitations of this study, the best steps moving forward would be to identify aspects of care needing improvement, then incorporate changes, and repeat the study in 6 months.