Twenty-Year Trends in Dependency in Residential Aged Care in Auckland, New Zealand: A Descriptive Study

The Aged Residential Care Healthcare Utilization Study (ARCHUS): A Multidisciplinary, Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial Designed to Reduce Acute Avoidable Hospitalizations From Long-Term Care Facilities

“…RAC facilities within all these levels were eligible for study inclusion. Phase 1 of the study used resident data from the 2008 OPAL study 4,5 and discharge records from public acute hospitals to identify patient-related and facility-related factors predictive of acute ASH admissions. These were then applied to updated data to identify RAC facilities with higher rates of ASH admissions (paper in preparation).…”

“…In follow-up of our large 2008 cohort of Auckland RAC residents, the OPAL study, 4,5 6% were hospitalized in the 4 weeks postsurvey. More than 75% of the hospitalizations were acute.…”

Reports of the proportion of older people living in long‐term care: a cautionary tale from New Zealand

“…It is reassuring that with the change in definition, differences between the two sources reduces over time, and indeed some of the differences may result from population increases between the relevant census and survey date. Available bed numbers changed little over the 20-year period of the surveys, 12,13 in spite of population growth, so rates in LTC must have fallen rather than increased as suggested by the census (Figure 1). …”

“…Needs assessment before entry into residential LTC has been mandated, funding of homebased services has been expanded to enable more disabled or frail older people to remain living at home, and a growing number of older people are choosing to move into retirement villages (purposebuilt independent-living units with some shared social spaces or facilities) that are not counted as residential LTC. Over the past two decades, dependency levels in LTC have increased, 12 entry to care is later in life and stays are shorter, leading to reduced use of residential LTC. 13 In NZ, data on utilisation of residential LTC have not been published routinely.…”

“…12,13 Study methods are described in detail in the cited publications and full ethics approvals were obtained. Briefly, all facilities licensed to provide residential LTC were surveyed, demographic and dependency information was collected for each current resident and population proportions derived using latest census data.…”