#MIDDLEBURY
by Matilda Charles
Supposedly we go to the hospital to get better. Too often, however, we come out in much worse condition than when we went in.
Kaiser Health News has written a series about the impact of hospitals on seniors, and one of the articles has a frightening headline, “Elderly Hospital Patients Arrive Sick, Often Leave Disabled.” The article describes the chaos of being in the hospital with noisy wards, interrupted sleep, strange food and germs that make patients sicker than they were.
Research shows one-third of hospitalized seniors over age 70 will end up disabled even after the original illness or condition is treated. It proposes a plan of focusing on daily living skills, mobility and cognition while the seniors are in the hospital so those skills won’t deteriorate. The most important to focus on is mobility.
Some hospitals around the country are setting up seniors-only wards called Acute Care for Elders (ACE) wards with staffers who are experts in taking care of the elderly. Again, mobility is the big thing. Seniors are encouraged to move around and eat in a communal dining area instead of staying in bed 24 hours a day. At this point there are only 200 such wards.
Go online to khn.org/topics/aging and click through the various articles about seniors and hospitals. If you’re a caregiver for a senior, be sure to read through these as your senior might not come home in the same physical condition after hospitalization, and adjustments will need to be made.
Check your local hospitals in advance in case you or a family member ever need to be hospitalized. Is there a seniors’ wing? Determine, too, if your local hospital has a geriatric emergency room. The care there will be targeted toward seniors, which means better patient screening.
(c) 2016 King Features Synd. Inc.
