Barnes 2012

Methods	Randomised trial
Participants	1632 participants (858 intervention, 774 control) Mean age: 81 years Male:female proportion: 33.3% male Inclusion criteria: patients ≥ 70 years of age admitted to general medical service Exclusion criteria: admitted to intensive care units/other speciality units, electively; length of stay < 2 days
Interventions	Intervention team members: attending geriatrician, trained nursing, social workers, physiotherapists Intervention team organisation: comprehensive assessment, at least weekly MDT meetings, assessment tools, protocols, ward environment, outpatient follow‐up Control: general inpatient unit, where younger and older patients resided together
Outcomes	Alive and in own home Death Re‐admission Activities of daily living Length of stay Resource use Trial conclusions: resulted in reduced length of stay and in cost savings
Notes
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Computer‐generated random numbers
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Low risk	Sequentially numbered opaque sealed envelopes
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias)	High risk	Blinding of participants not possible, blinding of services not possible
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) for objective outcome measures	Low risk	Objective outcome measures (e.g. living at home) unlikely to be influenced by lack of blinding
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) for subjective outcome measures	Unclear risk	No details of outcome assessors given
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	No missing data reported
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	No protocol available
Other bias	Low risk	Little evidence of contamination of control group