BHiRCH

Better Health in Residents of Care Homes (BHiRCH)

Our aim was to develop and test a complex intervention to reduce rates of avoidable hospital admissions from nursing homes.

In the first year we developed an intervention intended to improve the health of care home residents, and reduce avoidable hospital admissions. In the second year we finalised the intervention, which includes assessment and diagnostic tools for the four conditions that people are most likely to be admitted to hospitals when it was avoidable. We tested the implementation of the intervention in a feasibility study and then conducted a pilot randomised controlled trial in seven care homes in London and seven in West Yorkshire.

Selected Publications

Evidence-based intervention to reduce avoidable hospital admissions in care home residents (the Better Health in Residents in Care Homes (BHiRCH) study): protocol for a pilot cluster randomised trial. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31133585 Family involvement in timely detection of changes in health of nursing homes residents: A qualitative exploratory study. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28557103