Frailty is an increasingly recognised syndrome that signifies increased risk of adverse outcomes such as unplanned hospital admission, institutionalisation and death. There is good evidence that intervention can improve the outcomes for these patients.
NB. Please note that some frail patients are not elderly so the term frail, rather than frail elder, is used throughout. Also note that many frail patients are not housebound.
Accessing the Populating Reporting Searches
Until recently, CDRC’s EMIS Population Reports have been made available to access directly from the CDRC website. However, this has meant that there is no way of ensuring that they are being used appropriately and updated as necessary, representing a risk.
You can still access these reports directly from the CDRC team by emailing contact-cdrc@healthinnovationnenc.org.uk ; a member of the CDRC team will be able to provide access to the required reports and any ongoing support.
We endeavour this to be a short-term solution as CDRC are working on a comprehensive support suite, which in the long-term will benefit GP practices using these resources, by providing a more in depth & ongoing support system.
Population Reporting Guidance:
The eFI is a tool that counts the number of ‘deficits’ that a patient has, based on Read coded information. It has been validation in an enormous UK cohort. The eFI gives a value of 0-1. Values above 0.75 are, by and large, incompatible with life. Values above 0.36 suggest significant frailty. The eFI correlates strongly with outcomes such as hospitalisation, institutionalisation and death. The small proportion of patients with a high eFI who are not frail are at high risk of hospital admission and may still be candidates for the avoiding unplanned admission scheme.
NB. A high eFI does not confirm a diagnosis of frailty.
