[The elderly patient in the emergency service: some myths and some answers]

The bad use and overload of hospital emergency rooms (HER) constitute a problem in present health assistance. Old patients are often blamed of a misuse of this health care assistance. The results of studies analyzing the behaviour of older patients at HER show that this group of patients utilize this service more adequately than younger adults, since they go to the emergency room with more justifiable reason, with more severe diseases and require more hospital admissions. On the other hand, older patients consume more time in the HER than what would proportionally correspond to this group in the community. It is interesting to keep these data in mind when planning health assistance.