Comprehensive geriatric assessment – a guide for the non-specialist

Comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) is the most comprehensively researched model for healthcare delivery to frail older patients. It has been shown, through a series of high-quality research studies and subsequent meta-analyses, to deliver measurable health improvements for frail older people. Although it is well understood by specialists in care of older people, it remains unrecognised by many non-specialists. Because it is a multifaceted complex intervention, whose title and acronym do not convey its full meaning, it may be misunderstood by those unfamiliar with it. Given the demonstrated benefits from CGA for frail older patients – who now increasingly represent ‘core business’ to healthcare professionals of all types, across all developed healthcare economies – it is important that this model of healthcare delivery is more widely understood. The purpose of this article is to explain, for a non-specialist clinical readership, what CGA is and how it works.