The Reported Edmonton Frail Scale was used to describe the prevalence of frailty in an acute general medical unit. The relationship between frailty, discharge destination, mortality and length of hospital stay was explored. We found that age was associated with frailty, and frailty correlated to an increasing length of hospital stay. Significantly, frailty was associated with complexity in discharge, and this process created a longer length of hospital stay.
Keywords: discharge destination; frailty; length of hospital stay; mortality.
© 2014 The Authors; Internal Medicine Journal © 2014 Royal Australasian College of Physicians.