Improved hospital care for elderly patients: guidance on vulnerability and goal assessment
Schoon, Y.; van Iersel, M.B.; Jacobsen, D.E.; Smit, J.W.A.; de Boer, M.-J.; Olde Rikkert, M.G.M.
Nederlands Tijdschrift Voor Geneeskunde 157(34): A6224
2013
ISSN/ISBN: 1876-8784 PMID: 23965244 Document Number: 670499
Hospital care is highly disease-focused, tending towards further specialisation, and largely driven by technological innovations. Frail elderly, however, are an important and rapidly growing group of patients that is not best cared for in such a clinical environment. Case histories and the description of outcomes of an innovative programme called 'CareWell Primary Care' reveal that triage based on frailty and a global geriatric assessment of frail patients which is linked to goal-oriented hospital care and shared decision-making are the cornerstones of much needed improvement in delivering effective, safe, and sustainable hospital care to our ageing population.