Hospitalized Older People

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Hospitalization is often an inevitable option for older people obtaining healthcare (Kirchheimer, 2009), and associated with a negative impact on their health outcomes (Covinsky, et al. 2003). Studies show that hospitalization cause significant health risks for older people such as complication unrelated to the problem that cause admission (Hancock, 2003); experience more functional decline (Covinsky et al., 2003; Boyd, Xue, Guralnik & Fried, 2005); increase in length of stay, cost, morbidity and mortality (Iwata, Kuzuya, Kitagawa, & Iguch, 2006). Hospitalized older people require care that can be complex since health care professionals must address not only the acute problems but also the chronic conditions associated with aging (Ironside, McLaughlin, King & Mengel, 2010).
Researcher argued vulnerable older adult comprise 37% of hospital discharges and 43% of hospital stays (Hall, DeFrances, Williams, Golosinskiy & Schwartzman, 2010). According to Institute of Medicine report (2008), the healthcare services for older people should be reorganized with the older patient as the center, and provide healing relationships that include patients’ choices and control. However, hospital systems are not structured to care for older adults. Several studies showed that health care services were designed for efficient and rapid …show more content…

The study involved 245 hospitalized older from 2 classes A hospital and 3 class B hospitals. The findings showed that the majority of older people had hospital stay of 2-6 days (46.53%), and 7-11 days (30%) in both hospitals. In addition, older people with the longest length of stay (12-16 days) were found in class B hospital. It seems that hospitalized older people would have longer length of stay, and most of them would be found in Class B

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