- With the opening of the new unit, care for the geriatric population will increase by 300%.
- It is the first tertiary level space in the country that will provide medical-surgical services, as well as multi and interdisciplinary ones.
- Of the total number of patients treated by the General Hospital of Mexico, 68% are over 60 years of age.
The general director of the General Hospital of Mexico “Eduardo Liceaga”, Guadalupe Mercedes Lucía Guerrero Avendaño, inaugurated the first third level geriatric care unit with multi and interdisciplinary medical-surgical management in the country. With this, it focuses care efforts on the characteristics and needs of elderly patients to improve their quality of life.
This multidisciplinary approach will increase care in highly specialized units by 300 percent, with the monitoring and supervision of the Geriatric Care Service. Similarly, the initiative entails savings in supplies and hospital costs.
The director of the HGM explained that the interdisciplinary care received by the patients will be carried out in the clinics of Nephrogeriatrics, Neurogeriatrics and Pneumogeriatrics. All are coordinated by the head of the Geriatric Care Service, José de Jesús Rivera Sánchez, and a multidisciplinary team.
Guerrero Avendaño explained that the clinics for Orthogeriatrics, Geriatric Emergencies, Geriatric Palliative Care and Cardiogeriatrics.
History of geriatric care in Mexico
When recounting the history of this institution, he pointed out that the Hospital General de México “Eduardo Liceaga” is a national benchmark in geriatric care. In 1974, the Geriatrics Clinic was established, with an outpatient model, which had a great impact and led to the creation of the first diploma course in aging in 1976.
In the eighties, the management of other care models was promoted. In 1983, a day room was created and geriatric hospitalization was instituted, which was the first acute care unit in the country.
From 2002 to 2020, the Mexican population increased from seven million to 12.8 million people over 65 years of age. It is estimated that it will reach 27 million by 2050. In the hospital, more than 68 percent of the patients who attend are over 60 years of age.
Guerrero Avendaño specified that it is necessary to promote geriatric care models with a vision of at least 40 years in the future in terms of knowledge, research, trained personnel, infrastructure and adequate approaches to specify the functional status and prognosis of the patient.
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