Symposium on Community Engagement II Enhancing Medical and Social Welfare Interface Symposium on Community Engagement II Presented by Timothy Ma Senior Citizen Home Safety Association Sept. 23, 2006 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Why Personal Emergency Link Service? In 1996, an unexpected cold spell caused more than one hundred elderly citizens living alone died at home 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Symposium on Community Engagement II About SCHSA In response to the situation, a group of enthusiastic citizens established SCHSA, the only non-profit-making organization rendering PE Link Service in HK (September 1996) Our belief : SINGLY NOT FEAR; ELDERLY BE CARED 獨居無懼 老有所依 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Symposium on Community Engagement II PE Link Service 24 hour emergency assistance Simple Case management, e.g. short-term reminding service Hospital referral Post-discharge emotional assurance 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Symposium on Community Engagement II Hospital Referral A communication mechanism established between SCHSA and A&E Departments of public hospitals since Jan, 1997 A standardized Hospital Referral (HR) form has been used for the past 9 years. 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Symposium on Community Engagement II 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Symposium on Community Engagement II Procedures A PE Link user press the alarm and request to be sent to A&E Departments under emergency situation, like heart attack, shortness of breath, etc 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Symposium on Community Engagement II Procedures (cont.) PE Link Centre activates the communication mechanism by win-faxing the medical history and personal particulars of the patient to the designated A&E Department for their reference and necessary action. 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Symposium on Community Engagement II Procedures PE Link centre will inform patient’s carers/relatives about his/her latest situation once reply slip from the A&E Departments is received. Post-discharge emotional reassurance made 2 to 3 days after the patient has been sent to hospital. 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

PE Link service users profile As at 20th September 2006: 47,246 active service users 84,637 accumulated service users across the 10 years Annual growth rate: about 20% Across the 10 years, 101,010 people have pressed PE Link and being sent to A&E Departments 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

A study on the PE Link data (2005) Average age of users: 77.5 years old Living arrangement: 57.2% lived alone Marital Status: 58.9% married 22% widowed 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Symposium on Community Engagement II Disease Prevalence Disease % Blood pressure problem 54.7% Eye problem 39.3% Heart Disease 24.5% Diabetes 21.1% 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Frequency of disease counts No. of disease Frequency % 8280 19.3% 1 13931 32.4% 2 12356 28.7% 3 6604 15.4% 4 1657 3.9% 5 176 0.4% Each client had 1.54 major diseases on average. 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Symposium on Community Engagement II Higher Risk Group Those having more major diseases Married Living with family members Those living alone tend to have fewer major diseases : Possible reason: those living alone were more cautious about own health or those in weak health are already admitted into elderly homes 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Higher Risk Group (cont.) Those having higher risk of making calls : female, older in age, Having heart disease or diabetes 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Higher Risk Group (cont.) Among the 43,400 active users in 2005, 24% had called for help and were sent to hospital Average no. of calls per user = 0.57 Among those who made calls and were sent to hospital: 64.3 % were sent once Others sent 2 to 12+ times (132 of them had been sent >12 times) 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Classification of Risk Groups Description Users % Average calls per user Low Neither heart disease nor diabetes 61% 0.4 Median Heart disease or diabetes 33% 0.5 High Both heart disease and diabetes 6% 0.8 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Symposium on Community Engagement II High risk user have 180.2% higher risk than low risk user, and have a double of the average call for going to hospital rate 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Extreme Temperature Change In 2005, 21,396 calls for going to hospital received Average 58.6 calls each day More calls for the days with extreme Temperature Too high (> 30℃) : 67.5 calls Too low ( <10 ℃) : 64 calls 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Enhancing Medical and Social Interface For ambulance centre : Trained operators of PE Link Centre clearly inform the users’ emergency situation and medical history  Help them to decide which type of ambulance to be assigned 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Enhancing Medical and Social Interface For A & E By faxing user’ s medical history to A&E, timely reference for medical staffs to in advance facilitate in triage shorten the time for asking the user’s medical history Before the mechanism in place, the medical staffs may have to wake the patients up to ask who they are, what kind of diseases they have, etc. 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Enhancing Medical and Social Interface For SCHSA : Render more holistic care to the PE Link users, both during emergency assistance and post-discharge support Support carers by timely information about the status of the patients admitted into hospitals 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Further collaboration PPI-EPR Sharing With this enhancement, we can : Provide more accurate information to A&E and facilitate rescue Enhance post discharge case management by providing rendering health advice by nurses; hence, hoping to reduce hospital readmission rate 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Enquiries / Future Contact Timothy Ma Tel: 2338 8312 / 9038 0545 Email: timothy@schsa.org.hk Web site: http://www.schsa.org.hk 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II

Symposium on Community Engagement II ~ Thank you ~ 2018/11/22 Symposium on Community Engagement II