Improving Patient Prioritization During Hospital-homecare Transition: A Mixed Methods Study of a Clinical Decision Support Tool

PREVENT clinical decision support tool consideres five patient risk factors as significant predictors of patient's priority for the first homecare nursing visit: (a) Presence of wounds (either surgical or pressure ulcers); (b) a documented comorbid condition of depression; (c) need for assistive equipment, assistive person, or both for toileting; (d) number of medications; and (e) number of comorbid conditions. Each risk factor was assigned a specific score based on the logistic regression weights. For instance, for a wound (e.g., pressure ulcer, vascular ulcer), the patient received a score of 15 points. For each additional co-morbid condition, one point was added to the final score. Summing the scores for the factors generated a cumulative score. The optimal cut-off point was established based on the regression model performance statistics, indicating that patients with a score greater than 26 points are a high priority for the first nursing visit.