Abstract
Objetives: To analyse the frecuency and characteristics of the attendance to the elderly patient at the Emergency Department of a General Hospital. Methods: Retrospective study of patients 65 years assisted at the Emergency Department of the Hospital Clinico San Carlos (Madrid), during 1998, taking into consideration diferent parameters as age, sex, time of year, referred pathology and final destination.; results were com pared with data relating to the population under 65. Results: Over 28.4% of the 129,586 subjects that attended the Emergency Department were elderly people. Those ones aged between 65-74 years demanded assistance more frecuently, being women’s requests higher, particularly among the eldest patients. Assistance requests were higher in winter time, being the most common reason for consultation medical and surgical general troubles (76.4%), followed by trauma emergencies ( 12.35%). Hospital admission’s percentage of elderly peo ple was three times higher than the non-elderly ones, needing more admissions men than women (29 vs 22.7%). Conclusions: The high frecuency of urgent attendance to the elderly patient compared with younger people as well as the higher number of admissions due to this assistance, seem to make necessary the implantation of Geriatric Evaluation Units at the hospital’s Emergency Depart ments.
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