[Conceptual framework and historical perspective of intermediate care]

The aging of the population is raising the need to make structural changes in the National Health System. First, the need to increase geriatric services in all hospitals. Second, implement and integrate intermediate care (IC), and Third and last, guarantee medical care in long-term care. IC is characterized by a wide range of resources located between acute hospital care and primary care, which include hospitalization devices, both with and without admission or confinement, home and outpatient care, which help to provide continuity and time-limited transition of care. The main objective of IC is an integral (multidimensional) and integrated (interdisciplinary and coordinated between different care levels) care of the older adults, based on the specialized geriatric care. The integration of the IC in the current health system is based on the establishment of two coordinated work dynamics with primary care and acute hospital care, AI becoming key, inside several devices, to prevent hospital admissions (prevent entry -Step Up- focus to give access to primary care to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions) and to facilitate early discharge in acute hospitals (Step Down- focus to promote the best autonomy and functional recovery after a complex acute care). With these objectives in mind, as members of the Intermediate Care Group of the Spanish Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology, the authors propose the following work aiming to revise the current status of available IC resources in Spain, to analyze the context, historical background and its conceptual framework. All these will allow to highlight the undeniable value of IC to healthcare professionals and managers.