Related Experiment Videos
Elderly care. A pilot project on opportunistic geriatric assessments in general practice
S Shah1, M F Harris, D Conforti
1Department of General Practice, South Western Sydney Area Health Services, University of Sydney, New South Wales.
Objectives:
To develop a pilot program for systematic assessment of functional status of the elderly in general practice.
Method:
The program was developed in consultation with local GPs and aged care services and introduced to GPs at a workshop. The program was piloted for seven general practitioners with 41 patients, 70 years or older.
Results:
While many problems had been previously identified by GPs additional problems with: home and social life; activities of daily living and mobility; cognition and depression; general health and medication problems were found in up to 2.5% of patients.
Conclusion:
Opportunistic health assessment of the elderly in general practice is practical and useful in detecting health problems.