geriatrics in Spain

Adequacy of Geriatric Resources In Spanish General Hospitals

ABSTRACT

Objective:
To evaluate the adequacy of geriatric resources to meet the needs of elderly individuals hospitalised for acute illness in Spain.

Material and method:
We performed a descriptive, cross-sectional study. General hospitals in Spain with mom than 100 beds on the lot of June, 2003, were included Each hospital was classified as: 1) no provision of specialised geriatric care: no specific geriatric resources or specialised geriatric coverage in the hospital; and 2) provision of specialised geriatric care: geriatric resources and consequently some geriatric coverage. Depending on the type of geriatric resources available, hospitals were also classified as: those providing geriatric evaluation by multidisciplinary functional teams according to different types of regions (incomplete} and those providing more complete geraiatric care (evaluation mad intervention) with acute geriatric care, units. All the data was assessed and corroborated by the presidents or offices of each Spanish Regional Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology. The results were analysed globally and by regions.

Results:
Of 798 hospitals, 216 were general hospitals with more thin 100 beds. In 146 hospitals (68%), there were no specialised geriatric resources for acute stage illness. In 49 hospitals (22%) specialised geriatric care was incomplete and in 21 hospitals (10%) it was more complete. The regions with the widest geriatric coverage were Cetalaaia (77%); Madrid (54%) and Castilla-La Mancha (50%). Cantabria and Pais Vasco had no geriatric converage in acute hospitals, while Asturias, Baleares and Andalucia had very low levels of geriatric coverage (11%, 11% and 9% respectively). The regions with the widest provisions of acute care geriatric units in general hospitals were Madrid (31%) and Castilla-La Mancha (30%}. Seven regions had no hospitals with acute care geriatric units.

Conclusions:
Currently most general hospitals in Span do not have adequate provision of specialised geriatric care and the distribution of the geriatric resources among the different regions is uneven.

contacts in Spain

Jesús Mateos del Nozal

je_mdn@yahoo.es
+34 600995 1043
Associate Prof. in Geriatric Medicine

Maria Victoria Farre-Mercade

mavifarre@hotmail.com