Hospital care for the elderly is significantly different than care provided for patients in the younger age groups. The elderly require constant medical attention and at times even basic care, like assistance while walking or help with sight and hearing.

Usually family members or friends fill in for the medical staff and help out with such basic functions. However, if that is not an option, then the attending nurses need to shoulder these additional responsibilities. Often these nurses are not properly trained to handle such geriatric issues, and too much workload on them also affects the quality of care they are able to offer.

Many hospitals are now introducing intervention so that issues like injuries from falls, incontinence, dementia, and medication abuse by the elderly can be properly addressed. Even discharging elderly patients from hospitals need to be handled differently than other regular patients, like educating them on the proper recovery process while away from the hospital. Often an elder patient has no clue how to go about his daily activities without the support he was accustomed to at the hospital. If he also suffers from other problems like poor memory or arthritis, then managing at home may become even more difficult.

Another problem area is that the medical staff at hospitals naturally slots all elderly patients as incapable, even when a patient’s faculties are intact. Such stereotypes result in two kinds of situations -- the patient gets treated inappropriately, and two, the treatment process is adversely affected. Overall, there is aplenty of room for improvement when it comes to providing the right kind of hospital care for the elderly.

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