Socialising Disease: Medical Categories and Inclusion of the Aged

2000 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Latimer
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Hospital Care ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Older Person ◽  
Medical Unit ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
Acute Medical Unit ◽  
Medical Domain

When older peoples' troubles are categorised as social rather than medical, hospital care can be denied them. Drawing on an ethnography of older people admitted as emergencies to an acute medical unit, the article demonstrates how medical categories can provide shelter for older people. By holding their clinical identity on medical rather than social grounds, physicians who specialise in gerontology in the acute medical domain can help prevent the over-socialising of an older person's health troubles. As well as helping the older person to draw certain resources to themselves, such as treatment and care, this inclusion in positive medical categories can provide shelter for the older person, to keep at bay their effacement as ‘social problems'. These findings suggest that contemporary sociological critique of biomedicine may underestimate how medical categorising, as the obligatory passage through which to access important resources and life chances, can constitute a process of social inclusion.

scholarly journals The Ability of Frailty to Predict Outcomes in Older People Attending an Acute Medical Unit

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-76
Author(s):  
Simon Conroy ◽  
◽  
Teresa Dowsing ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Length Of Stay ◽  
Older People ◽  
Odds Ratio ◽  
Canadian Study ◽  
Clinical Frailty Scale ◽  
Medical Unit ◽  
Acute Medical Unit ◽  
Frailty Assessment

Background: This study assessed the role of frailty assessment in the AMU. Methods: Patients were assessed for frailty and their outcomes ascertained at 90 days. Results: The Canadian Study on Health and Aging Clinical Frailty Scale categorised 29% of patients as moderately-severely frail. Frailty did not differentially identify those likely to be discharged within one day, nor with long stays. Mortality at 90 days was 32%; frailty was associated with the risk of dying, odds ratio 1.4. 21% of patients were readmitted at 30 days, and 33% at 90 days, but frailty was not predictive. Discussion: Moderate-severe frailty in people aged 70+ was common and was predictive of higher mortality, but did not appear to predict admission, length of stay or readmission.

Designing for older people: But who is an older person?

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raghavendra Reddy Gudur ◽  
◽  
Alethea Blackler ◽  
Vesna Popovic ◽  
Doug Mahar
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Older Person

scholarly journals Acute medical unit clinical skills lab

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 140-140
Author(s):  
Sarb Clare ◽  
Joe Wheeler
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Skills ◽  
Medical Unit ◽  
Acute Medical Unit ◽  
Skills Lab

Prioritization and management of calls from older people to GP out-of-hours services

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Smith ◽  
Lucia Carragher
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Emergency Services ◽  
Oldest Old ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Older Person ◽  
Out Of Hours ◽  
Accident And Emergency ◽  
Community Dwelling Older People

Abstract Background Urgent out-of-hours medical care is necessary to ensure people can remain living at home into older age. However, older people experience multiple barriers to using out-of-hours services including poor awareness about the general practitioner (GP) out-of-hours (GPOOH) service and how to access it. In particular, older people are reluctant users of GPOOH services because they expect either their symptoms will not be taken seriously or they will simply be referred to hospital accident and emergency services. The aim of this study was to examine if this expectation was borne out in the manner of GPOOH service provision. Objective The objective was to establish the urgency categorization and management of calls to GPOOH , for community dwelling older people in Ireland. Methods An 8-week sample of 770 calls, for people over 65 years, to a GPOOH service in Ireland, was analysed using Excel and Nvivo software. Results Urgency categorization of older people shows 40% of calls categorized as urgent. Recognition of the severity of symptoms, prompting calls to the GPOOH service, is also reflected in a quarter of callers receiving a home visit by the GP and referral of a third of calls to emergency services. The findings also show widespread reliance on another person to negotiate the GPOOH system, with a third party making 70% of calls on behalf of the older person seeking care. Conclusion Older people are in urgent need of medical services when they contact GPOOH service, which plays an effective and patient-centred gatekeeping role, particularly directing the oldest old to the appropriate level of care outside GP office hours. The promotion of GPOOH services should be enhanced to ensure older people understand their role in supporting community living.

scholarly journals Causes of discharge delays from the acute medical unit (AMU) in a tertiary level teaching hospital, Brunei Darussalam

2021 ◽  
pp. 201010582110061
Author(s):  
Dayang Nur Hilmiyah binti Awang Husaini ◽  
Justin Fook Siong Keasberry ◽  
Khadizah Haji Abdul Mumin ◽  
Hanif Abdul Rahman
Keyword(s):  
Observational Study ◽  
Discharge Planning ◽  
Patient Factors ◽  
Medical Unit ◽  
Prolonged Length ◽  
Acute Medical Unit ◽  
Brunei Darussalam ◽  
Medical Issues ◽  
Hospital Factors ◽  
Prolonged Hospital

Background: Many patients admitted to the acute medical unit experience a prolonged length of stay in hospital due to discharge delays. Consequently, this may impact the patients, healthcare institution and national economy in terms of patient safety, decreased hospital capacity, lost patient workdays and financial performance. Objectives: The main aim of this observational study was to identify the causes of discharge delays among acute medical unit patients admitted in the Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha Hospital, Brunei. Methods: A retrospective observational study, with data of patients admitted to the acute medical unit collected from Brunei Health Information Systems between September and December 2018. Statistical analyses were performed to obtain relevant results and any statistically significant associations. Results: A total of 357 patients were admitted to the acute medical unit over the 4-month period; 218 patients (61.1%) experienced discharge delays. Of these 218 patients, 158 patients (72.5%) encountered discharge delays mainly due to intrinsic patient factors, while the discharge delays in 88 patients (40.4%) were attributed to hospital factors. The main reason for discharge delays for patient factors was slow recovery among 67 patients (30.7%), whereas for hospital factors it was the weekend limitation of services available in 23 patients (10.6%). Conclusions: There were various causes of discharge delays identified among the 218 acute medical unit patients who experienced discharge delays. Older patients with frailty, polypharmacy and complex medical issues were more likely to have a prolonged hospital stay in the acute medical unit. Stringent inclusion criteria, increasing discharge planning as well as an effective multidisciplinary approach will aid in reducing discharge delays from the acute medical unit.

Prevalence of signs of dysphagia and associated risk factors in geriatric patients admitted to an acute medical unit

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 208-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Dissing Olesen ◽  
Robert Mariusz Modlinski ◽  
Simon Hosbond Poulsen ◽  
Pernille Mølgaard Rosenvinge ◽  
Henrik Højgaard Rasmussen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Geriatric Patients ◽  
Medical Unit ◽  
Acute Medical Unit ◽  
Associated Risk Factors
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document