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Abstract
Background Older people living with frailty who have urgent care needs are especially vulnerable, despite best practice guidance. In the UK, the Acute Frailty Network (AFN) was created in 2015 to improve outcomes for this population, emphasising early supported discharge.
Objectives The AFN involved health and social care systems working together to improve services locally, supported by national clinical and improvement experts, sharing experiences through national networking events. The AFN used Quality Improvement and Experience Based Design to embed evidence-based care into clinical practice. The AFN worked with over 120; each hospital was supported over twelve-months (figure 1).
Methods Outcome data is available from all 8 cohorts: over 94% of sites rated the improvement programme as excellent or good, showing high levels of satisfaction, especially site visits, site support, national events, measurement support and co-design meetings. Many sites reported a sense of validation from being part of the AFN (figure 2). Demonstrations of positive patient impact include Medway who achieved 58% reduction in patients aged 75+ staying in hospital for >7 days, Wolverhampton who reduced readmissions within 30 days by 45% and Bournemouth reduced average stay length reduced by 24%.
Results To date, we have undertaken over 200 site visits, delivered >50 national events and 25 masterclasses, 190 webinars to 2504 participants, and published over 100 newsletters. 2849 delegates have attended 34 national AFN events, in addition to five annual conferences. There are over 3,300 registered users of the website www.acutefrailtynetwork.org.uk. We have had visits from and/or been invited to speak about the AFN and its work to audiences from around the world (figure 3).
Conclusions Through a unique combination of high-quality research and improvement expertise, the AFN this has translated evidence into practice with national and international impact.