[Geriatric care in a rural practice].

Geriatric care in a rural practice. General practitioners/family physicians are responsible for the continuing care in case of illness and infirmity of about 95% of the population over 65 years old. In the examined practice area the percentage of the population over 65 years old is 11.29, but among the patients of the practice 18.5% are over 65 years old and the consultations come up to a percentage of 21.6. A random test by 100 patients over 65 years old during half a year has given the following facts: There have been 946 consultations, 299 of them as home visits. 18 patients needed 28 hospitalisations with a total of 481 days as in-patients. 6 patients died during the test period. On an average 4.44 diagnoses were needed and 7.63 medicaments prescribed. By 67 patients 85 heavy, acute troubles occurred. These facts show the importance of the geriatric aspects in the primary care. Since the percentage of the older patients is growing also with the growing age of the doctor, it is necessary that more attention must be given in the continuing education to the problems of geriatric care, of multimorbidity, of multimedication and of alternatives to medical therapy.