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Table 1 Overview of intermediate care, Department of Health Social Services and Public Safety, Northern Ireland [39]

From: “It’s very complicated”: a qualitative study of medicines management in intermediate care facilities in Northern Ireland

• Intermediate care services should be targeted at people who would otherwise face:

 – Inappropriate admission to acute in-patient care;

 – Long-term residential/nursing home care;

 – Unnecessary prolonged hospital stays; or

 – Continuing in-patient care.

 Key Principles:

• IC should be provided on the basis of a comprehensive person-centred assessment of need, resulting in a structured individual care plan that, where appropriate, involves active therapy, treatment or opportunity for recovery;

• IC should have a planned outcome of maximising independence and typically enabling service users to remain or resume living at home;

• IC should be time-limited, usually no longer than six weeks and frequently as little as 1-2 weeks or less; and

• IC should involve cross-professional working, with a single assessment framework, increasingly integrated professional records and shared protocols.