Hospital Care for the Elderly
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Abstract
Older adults are at disproportionate risk of becoming seriously ill and requiring hospital care, whether it is an emergency department, on a medical or surgical ward, or in a critical-care unit. Adults aged 60 and above account for 35% of acute-care hospital admissions and nearly 50% of hospital expenditure for all adults.1,2 While many principles of acute hospital care are the same for all age groups, the elderly patient population is at increased risk of comorbidities and accompanying medications, functional decline and cognitive impairment. Therefore, there are several issues related to the hospital admission, stay and discharge that deserve specic attention when considering the care of the geriatric population. The care of hospitalized elders requires a systematic approach to the evaluation and management of com- monly seen geriatric conditions and perhaps implementation of structural changes specically designed to address the needs of an often medically complex and potentially vulnerable population.
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