Hidden Costs of Hospital Discharge: Understanding the costs and outcomes associated with Hospital Discharge from the perspective of people, carers and local authorities

We are conducting a research study to better understand stakeholder perspectives on hospital discharge for people aged 65 years or older. What currently works well, what the challenges are for different organisations, and to what extent different organisations work together effectively. We would like to invite you to take part in the research study.

Please read this blog to help you decide if you want to take part. You can contact us if you have any questions.

Summary:

There is currently little evidence of how well older people, and those who care about them (family and friends), cope after they are discharged from hospital. How well people are able to cope will be influenced by the planning and preparation conducted prior to discharge, communication and collaboration between different organisations, and effective ongoing support, where this is needed. We are seeking to develop a better understanding of these processes, along with challenges and best practice. We are particularly interested in this issue from a social care perspective.

About the research:

The research is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and is being led by the University of Birmingham. We want to talk to people from local authorities, charities, independent care providers, and other relevant organisations. This is the first step in a wider project and will help us to understand current (best) practice, examples of joint working and collaboration, the priorities of different stakeholders, challenges, and concerns.

Why have I been invited to take part? You have been given this information leaflet because you work for (or are otherwise affiliated to) an organisation which has social care related responsibilities, relevant to hospital discharge for those aged 65 years or older. This may be delivery, contracting or strategic oversight.

What will happen if I take part?

You are being invited to take part in a one-off interview, that will be conducted by a researcher from the University of Birmingham. We anticipate that interviews will last between 45 and 60 minutes. Interviews can either be conducted in-person (at a place of work) or online (via Microsoft Teams). We will consult you on which interview format will fit best with your preference and availability. Interviews will be digitally audio recorded and then transcribed verbatim. Our analysis and interpretation will be based on these transcripts. The interviewer will broadly follow a topic guide, asking about your role and your experience and views relating to hospital discharge.  

How will we use information about you?

We will need to use limited information about you as part of our research study. Here is a summary of the information we will collect, store and process:

• If you agree to take part, we will ask you to sign a paper consent form, which will be stored securely at the University of Birmingham for 10 years.
• We will use your name and contact details (which could include: email or postal address and phone number) to contact you about the study and to arrange the interview.
• Audio recordings of the interviews will be stored on a secure network at the University of Birmingham. Recordings will be deleted once they’ve been transcribed.
• Anonymous transcripts (from the audio recordings) will be stored on a secure University of Birmingham network for 10 years. Anonymous transcripts will be shared with people outside of the University of Birmingham research team for the purposes of research, including for future research projects.

People will use this information to do the research or to make sure that the research is done properly. People who do not need to know who you are will not be able to see your name or contact details. Your data will have a code number instead. We will keep all information about you safe and secure. 

We will write our reports in a way that no-one can work out that it was you who took part in the study. The overall messages and themes will be published in academic journals and shared at meetings and conferences with councils and care providers. We may use direct quotes from the interviews to support and illustrate our research findings, but these will be anonymous. We will produce guides and other helpful information to make the process easier in the future for older people being discharged from hospital.

Where can you find out more about how your information is used:

You can find out more about how we use your information

• by asking one of the research team
• by sending an email to data protection@contacts.bham.ac.uk

We need to manage your records in specific ways for the research to be reliable. This means that we won’t be able to let you see or change the data we hold about you.

Do I have to take part?

It is your decision whether or not you take part. You can stop being part of the study at any time, without giving a reason. If you want to withdraw, please let us know within two weeks and we will destroy any research data that we have collected from you. After two weeks, it is likely that your data will already have been included in our analysis. If you are unhappy about any aspect of this research, you can contact Professor Hareth Al Janabi at h.al-janabi@bham.ac.uk or by telephone on 0121 415 8483.

We hope you will be willing to share your views and experiences with us, so that you can help us to improve services for people in the future. As a thank you for taking part, we will give you a £20 shopping voucher for taking part.

Where can I get more information about taking part?

If you have questions that you would like to ask, or if you would like to take part, please contact:

Dr Stephen Williams:

Telephone: 07890 426602

Email: s.j.williams@bham.ac.uk 

Dr Philip Kinghorn:

Telephone: 0121 41 47620

Email: p.kinghorn@bham.ac.uk