[Hospital discharge for elderly persons: a cross-sectional study in Alsace]

The objectives of this study are to analyse in the Alsacian region the needs of people aged 75 years old and over after a stay in hospital. It is also to identify the matching point between the ideal patient discharge and the one feasible in reality. Finally, if no matching point is found, the study examines the reasons for this. This is an exhaustive overview conducted 8th December 1994 in the 96 Alsacian hospitals on all patients aged 75 and over than 10 days in short stay services and over 20 days in medium stay services. Thus 965 questionnaires were analysed. On leaving hospital, 60% of ideal discharge are feasible. This percentage varies according to the kind of discharge. From 18% for the Alzheimer units it reaches 91% for "home stay without arrangement". When the ideal discharge is "long stay", it is often not feasible due to structural causes. On the contrary, when going home is the ideal solution, this is often not feasible due to lack of motivation either from the patient or their family.