Staging acute medical care for the elderly: an analysis of patient admissions.

One hundred and eighteen geriatric admissions to acute medical beds were studied, from admission for up to six weeks to identify a stage of care for each day in hospital. In total 1642 days were spent receiving medical care, 683 of which required acute medical intervention (44%), 745 nursing care (45%), 59 awaiting paramedical activities (4%), and 155 awaiting outside medical consultations (9%). The study describes a method in which the acute hospital admission can be analysed and reasons for prolonged stay identified. The present strategies used are unable to cope with a proportion of elderly patients and are an inefficient use of an acute hospital's resources.