International Journal of Gerontology
Volume 3, Issue 4 , Pages 217-222, December 2009

Characteristics of Emergency Services for the Elderly—A Regional Hospital Example

  • Ching-Lin Huang
    • ,
  • Wai-Mau Choi

      Affiliations

    • Corresponding Author InformationCorrespondence to: Dr Wai-Mau Choi, Department of Emergency Medicine, Hsinchu Mackay Memorial Hospital, 690, Section 2, Guang Fu Road, Hsinchu 30071, Taiwan

Department of Emergency Medicine, Hsinchu Mackay Memorial Hospital, Hsinchu, Taiwan

Accepted 6 March 2009.

Article Outline

Summary 

Background

In Taiwan, the study of emergency medical services for elderly patients is inadequate. Although in recent years there has been more discussion of emergency care, there has been no comprehensive review. In other countries, elderly services have been examined for some years now, but the situation is different in Taiwan. Therefore, this study was performed in a district teaching hospital in Hsinchu County, and the emergency medical treatment of patients aged older than 65 years and its impact were analyzed.

Methods

In this study, we used retrospective data from a hospital in Hsinchu City between January and December 2008. We selected 9,692 patients aged older than 65 years and excluded missing data.

Results

The elderly patients' emergency condition, symptoms and diagnoses were found to be uncertain. As they tended to be triage levels 2–3, which is very serious, it meant that the elderly patient's status was complicated and emergency medical personnel often could not quickly judge what constituted appropriate treatment within a short time.

Conclusion

This study's primary goal was to investigate the most common clinical signs and symptoms of the various diseases most common in elderly patients, who presented to the emergency service, and the care of these patients in Hsinchu County to facilitate a more efficient and useful emergency medical service.

Key Words:  aged , delivery of health care , diagnosis , emergency medical services

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References 

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PII: S1873-9598(10)70004-1

doi:10.1016/S1873-9598(10)70004-1

International Journal of Gerontology
Volume 3, Issue 4 , Pages 217-222, December 2009

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