Geriatric consultation services-are wards more effective than teams?

Geriatric consultation services-are wards more effective than teams?

Ian D CameronEmail author and Susan Kurrle

BMC Medicine201311:49

DOI: 10.1186/1741-7015-11-49© Cameron and Kurrle; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013

Abstract

Geriatric consultation teams are one of the models for bringing comprehensive geriatric assessment to vulnerable and frail older people in the acute care hospital setting. While ward-based comprehensive geriatric assessment has been established as effective with reference to improving functional status and other outcomes, the team-based variant remains unproven for outcomes other than mortality in the medium term, as shown in a recent study published in BMC Medicine by Deschodt and colleagues. Further research might establish the effectiveness of the team-based model but, for current clinical practice, the emphasis should be on streaming older people with complex problems needing multidisciplinary assessment and treatment to ward-based models of comprehensive geriatric assessment.

Keywords

Acute care functional status geriatric consultation multidisciplinary assessment

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http://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1741-7015-11-49