Structured identification and coding outperform usual identification practice

The longitudinal record

1. 2026-07 · Provisional

   A length-of-stay prediction tool outperformed standard frailty/functional scales in a single-cohort comparison (acute frailty); structured coding was associated with fourfold higher advance care plan completion and more deaths outside hospital than absent coding (palliative care); systematic depression/anxiety screening nearly tripled psychiatric diagnosis detection versus clinician-initiated referral alone (clinical psychology). Three domains, three independent evidence streams, one structural finding in the same reporting week. Caveats carried from the sources: the frailty leg is a single retrospective cohort (n=201) whose authors require multi-centre validation; the palliative leg is a single-site retrospective service evaluation (n=216); the psychology leg is a quasi-experimental pilot whose diagnostic-confirmation difference did not reach statistical significance — the detection gain stands, the confirmation rate awaits randomised testing.

   Evidence PMID 42126267 PMID 41130666 PMID 42298512Coding and screening systems, not new treatment, drive this week's frailty and end-of-life evidence