Geriatric wards in acute hospitals

Contribution from geriatric medicine within acute medical wards.

In 1977 a scheme of attachment to acute medical wards of consultants in geriatric medicine and associated junior medical staff was instituted in a large Edinburgh teaching hospital. The effect on admissions of patients aged 65 and over was examined for comparable periods before and during this arrangement. Mean and median stays were reduced for both sexes but more noticeably for women. The mean...

Geriatric screening in acute care wards--a novel method of providing care to elderly patients.

OBJECTIVE: To assess a nurse-implemented geriatric screening system. DESIGN: Descriptive study. SETTING: University teaching hospital, Hong Kong. PATIENTS: All (5080) elderly patients admitted between 1 January 1996 and 31 December 1996. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Patient characteristics such as disease, prior admission, living quarters, and regular medications; interventions taken; and morbidity a...

Geriatric day hospitals--the future?

Balance impairment not predictive of falls in geriatric rehabilitation wards.

BACKGROUND Falls are common among hospital inpatients, particularly in rehabilitation wards. Standing balance impairment is widely held to be a contributing factor to falls, is a component of several falls risk screening tools, and has motivated the development of balance retraining programs for the reduction of in-hospital falls. Little rigorous investigation of the link between standing balan...

Geriatric consultation services-are wards more effective than teams?

Geriatric consultation teams are one of the models for bringing comprehensive geriatric assessment to vulnerable and frail older people in the acute care hospital setting. While ward-based comprehensive geriatric assessment has been established as effective with reference to improving functional status and other outcomes, the team-based variant remains unproven for outcomes other than mortality...