Comprehensive functional assessment of the elderly.

Area of Science:

• Geriatric Medicine
• Primary Care
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Primary care physicians traditionally assess patient well-being informally.
• Formalized functional assessment offers a reproducible, recordable, and reliable method for this evaluation.
• Existing assessment methods are often familiar to clinicians but not explicitly labeled as functional assessments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the integration of formalized functional assessment into primary care for elderly patients.
• To demonstrate how functional assessment complements traditional physician inquiries about patient status.
• To highlight the benefits of structured functional assessment for geriatric patient care.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing functional assessment strategies as a formalized approach within primary care.
• Leveraging direct observation of functional elements in clinical settings.
• Selecting appropriate functional assessment instruments for comprehensive patient evaluation.

Main Results:

• Functional assessment provides a structured format for evaluating elderly patients' status.
• The principles of functional assessment are already familiar to physicians.
• Table 8 summarizes easily accomplishable performance functional assessments.

Conclusions:

• Formalized functional assessment enhances patient evaluation in primary care for the elderly.
• This approach supports the application of the biopsychosocial model in geriatric care.
• Structured functional assessment improves the future care of geriatric patients.