Geriatric Home Care Utilization: San Francisco, 1968-1975

This data collection reported on geriatric clients served by San Francisco Home Health Services, Inc. (SFHHS) between 1968 and 1975. The study was designed to document and analyze the natural history of home care service use from entry to exit, noting what types of users were in a home care agency's program and how intensively services were utilized. The study also identified outcome categories useful for response to public policy questions on the effectiveness of various service types in meeting geriatric needs. Also examined was the relationship of home care use to nursing home entry, and to the need for other services. In Part 1, data for 2,435 clients were gathered from case records at SFHHS. Variables used in the analysis include entry characteristics (e.g, age, sex, condition, living arrangement, and contextual variables such as referral source, prior source of care, and payment type), duration, intensity, and type of service utilization, as well as discharge or exit status. Some of these are calculated variables derived from each case's accumulated monthly service records (found in their raw form in Part 2). Part 2 contains 35,729 client monthly service records, which are distributed as raw data as received from SFHHS. Variables include billing date, pay plan, and frequency and intensity of assistance.