[Care of aged and chronic patients in a short-stay medical unit].

OBJECTIVE: We are interested in characterizing the care of these patients in a Short Stay Medical Unit, evaluating their specific necessities and hospital handling.

METHOD: By means of an observational study we described the characteristics of 117 elderly patients and/or chronically ill patients who were admitted to our hospital unit for 50 consecutive days in order to determine the specification of the care to these kind of patients.

RESULTS: The average age was 76.1 +/- 9.7 años with a similar distribution between men and women. The prevailing chronic illness was the ischemic heart disease (20.5%), and the most frequent cause of admittance was the worsening of chronic obstruction of the air flow (34.2%). 39.5% were terminally ill. 58.1% of the patients showed some dependence to carry out basic activities of daily life (BADL), and the average of geriatric syndromes amongst the patients who were unable to look after themselves, was significantly higher to those who were fully independent (2.29 +/- 1.2 vs 1.57 +/- 0.99 respectively; dif: 0.72; U: 483; p = 0.007). Specially relevant amongst the non-independent patients were non-syncopal falls (31.4% vs 7.1%), vision problems (40% vs 16.7%), and house confinement for severe immobility (25.7% vs 7.1%). In all these cases the difference was significative. A lineal relationship was found between cognitive decline and the incidence of geriatric syndromes with respect to the level of disability for BADL (R = 0.705; b = 0.32; beta: 0.57; p < 0.001 and b = -1.04; beta: -0.22; p = 0.008 respectively). The average hospital stay was of 4.1 +/- 2.6 days; the death rate 9.8%, and early re-admission 11.3%. 99.1% had an identifiable career and in 92.3% of the cases the eventual necessities could be completely satisfied. 25% of the cases were hospitalized in their own homes and 9% were moved to a hospital for longer stays. The impact of the caring activity is seen in the freeing of 15 beds per day during the time of the study.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings implicate that in this group of patients, the traditional caring tasks should be complemented with other specific tasks, preventive and of rehabilitation, and its handling needs alternatives that avoid the decline in the quality of the care.