Research Article

Community Stepdown Care: A Safe Alternative for Selected Elderly Patients Attending Emergency Department?

Table 1

Baseline characteristics of patients in the study.

VariablesCommunity hospital groupAcute hospital group
value
( )( )

Gender (Males)11 (16.18%)36 (22.22%)0.299
Age (mean years)80.6579.10
Ethnicity0.250
 Chinese88.24%83.33%
 Indian2.94%6.79%
 Malay7.35%9.88%
 Others1.47%0%
Diagnosis0.03
 Back pain/osteoporotic spine fractures67.65%70.99%
 Osteoarthritis of the knees8.82%14.81%
 Pubic ramus fracture4.41%7.41%
 Limb contusion/fracture (not requiring surgery)19.12%6.79%
Co-morbidities0.25
 Diabetes mellitus36.76%25.93%
 Ischemic heart disease11.76%20.99%
 Hypertension64.71%58.64%
 Chronic obstructive airways disease0%1.85%