Beaumont celebrates one year of stroke early supported discharge service

Beaumont Hospital in Dublin has marked over a year of successful care through the stroke early supported discharge (ESD) service. The consultant-led ESD service provides multidisciplinary support to patients in their own homes, when otherwise they would need to stay in hospital. This support includes physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, social work and nursing care.

On average, patients go home with ESD after 15 days in hospital, compared to the average length of 23 days without ESD.

Beaumont also provides the national thrombectomy service for stroke, which has significantly improved patient outcomes.

In Ireland, approximately 10,000 people have a stroke-related event annually, with 7,000 acute hospital admissions.

Mr Ian Carter, CEO of Beaumont Hospital, stated: “The ESD service has been a success at Beaumont Hospital since its launch in 2018. The service has resulted in 20 per cent of stroke patients being discharged early, which has a positive impact on both the patients and services at Beaumont.”

 “This past year, we have discharged 50 patients early,” added Prof Barry Moynihan, Consultant Geriatrician at Beaumont. “A meta-analysis report on ESD shows on average seven days saving per patient, which is close to a total of 350 days per year. This success is down to the hard-working ESD team who continue to deliver the highest quality of patient care.”

Patients under the ESD team remain under the care of their hospital consultant while also having access to their GP. Beaumont Hospital launched the ESD service in January 2018 after a successful pilot project and said feedback from patients has been very positive. According to Beaumont, ESD has proven to be a cost-effective strategy that is now part of the HSE National Stroke Clinical Care Programme.

The hospital added that the ESD programme was delivered within its current resources.