2023-05-30 16:36:18
Vulnerable elderly core team in Maasstad Hospital
Within Maasstad Hospital, a core team of frail elderly has been set up with two medical leaders, two nursing leaders, a value-based care project leader and a data analyst. In the core team, the same clinical and patient-related outcomes are used to identify opportunities for improvement. We compare these results with other Santeon hospitals with the aim of learning from each other. The core team also maintains an overview of the improvement actions for frail elderly people that are hospital-wide.
Input for this news item was provided by the two medical leaders from the core team: Rikje Ruiter and Marleen Harkes.
When is a patient a frail older person?
Within Maasstad Hospital, Rikje Ruiter, geriatric internist and clinical pharmacologist, among others, is involved in the program: “Within the Santeon improvement program for vulnerable elderly people, we focus on people over 70 who have been found during hospital admission to have an increased risk of loss of function as a result of of risk factors such as delirium (confusion), falls, malnutrition and/or physical limitations. This amounts to more than 25% of patients admitted to hospital. So a large group of patients.”
Why is care for frail elderly complicated?
What makes the treatment of these patients difficult is that older patients often have multiple care questions, which means that several practitioners are involved. Patients are often in different departments in the hospital, where the geriatrician or the geriatric specialist can be asked for advice in the case of a frail elderly person.
For these patients, different outcomes are important than for the younger patients: for example, maintenance of independence. This calls for a different design of care.
Together Better program
Especially in the group of older patients, the mutual differences between how these patients experience the quality of life are very large. Marleen Harkes, geriatrician at Maasstad Hospital, explains: “While one patient would still like to have an operation because he or she feels limited, the other patient does not want that because an operation may be too stressful. This requires a personal approach. Because the care for frail elderly is complicated, the Samen Beter program is of great value for this patient group in particular.” Medical specialists and nurses from all 7 Santeon hospitals work together within the improvement program. They share knowledge and discuss differences, with the aim of continuous improvement of care that contributes to a patient’s quality of life.
The Santeon improvement program makes it possible to bring together improvement initiatives from the various hospitals and departments and to jointly really improve elderly care. This includes training nurses.
Read more about it Together Better program.
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