The short-term assessment, rehabilitation, reablement service “starrs”: a rapid response team to support the frail older person to remain at home

Abstract

This paper describes the Rapid Response Team (STARRS)in Greater London. It comprises a large data set with over 17,000 patients over a 4 year period from February 2016 to February 2020. The intermediate care team is able to support the older person at home in clinical crises or in need of social support thus avoiding hospital admissions; this is done through daily visits and geriatricians review via daily virtual ward rounds. Hospital admission avoidance (HAA) and re-admission rate at 30 days (HRA30) has been in excess of 80% and less than 10% respectively. Clinical governance was shared between geriatricians and patients ‘General Practitioner. The service is popular with General Practitioners and with patients. Economic evaluation reveals the service may also be cost effective with significant potential savings.