Profile of the elderly patient who comes to the service of urgencies in a first level hospital
Mª Jesús Rojas Ocaña, Juan B. Rodríguez Rodríguez

SUMMARY

  Background: The evolution of the demographic changes that are taking place in our country and the rest of western nations is giving rise to an aging of the population, causing itself like consequence an increase in the demand of sanitary services. But this is not only because there is more greater population of 65 years, but that this population tends to use the sanitary services more and more. It is to emphasize the important growth in the rates of hospitable frequentation, being observed remarkable variations according to the age. The objective of our analysis is to determine what level of hospitable frequentation by age intervals appears in the Hospital Juan Ramon Jiménez de Huelva, as well as to reflect what gravity presents/displays its sanitary demand.

  Methods: Retrospective study descriptive, in that the different characteristics from 1768 patients taken care of in the Service of Urgencies and Critical Cares of the Hospital were analyzed Juan Ramon Jiménez de Huelva, during a period of 7 days of the month of May of year 2000.

  Conclusions: The fact that 28.6% of the patients who go to the Service of Urgencies of our Hospital are greater of 65 years confirms the tendency of the fort referred increase of the income and hospitable discharges in Literature. More of 95% of the taken care of sanitary demands they are not critics. As far as the welfare demand by specialties it emphasizes the Internal Medicine block. The hospitable level of income in this group of patients arrived at 27.7%. An important data without a doubt of our study is that 2 of each 3 greater people of 65 years are registered from the own Service of Urgencies. Of there perhaps the importance of developing alternative systems that try more and more to diminish the number of Hospitable Urgencies on the part of this important population nucleus in increase
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KEY WORDS

Emergency, ederly patient, geriatrics.

Vol. 13 nº4-2002