New perspective of the international geriatric medicine: Acute care for the elderly / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Older patients often experience a loss of physical,cognitive and social functioning during an acute illness-caused hospitalization.The loss of function could be due to a traditional model of hospital care,which focuses only on diagnosis and treatment of acute disease.Restoration of elderly patients' lost functions is important for better prognosis of hospitalized elderly patients and would reduce the cost of additional medical treatment.Acute care for the elderly (ACE) is a new model of care aiming at function restoration by practicing a geriatric assessment in the special ACE unit of hospital.The ACE intervention includes interdisciplinary team rounds,discharge planning of hospital,medical care review,a prepared environment,and patient-centered care.Multiple randomized control trials have demonstrated that ACE unit can improve the functional status and prognosis of old patients,reduce the cost of hospitalization,and improve patients' satisfaction.Currently,ACE care model is poorly known by Chinese hospitals and doctors.This article introduces the concepts of ACE unit,technical elements and the clinical evidence of its effectiveness.