Co-morbidity and functional limitation in older patients underreported in medical records in Nordic Acute Care Hospitals when compared with the MDS-AC instrument

• SIR—Older persons are characterised by age-related changes, multiple diseases, multiple drug use and functional deficits. For optimal care, a holistic approach is needed; however, the health care systems of today are still essentially organised to provide acute medical care to relatively younger populations with little or no co-morbidity [ 1]. Health systems will have to adapt to this new situation.The value of geriatric assessment has been proven, where targeting is the key to success [ 2]. With shorter hospital stays, it is of importance to do this targeting quickly and effectively. According to a systematic literature review in the older patients, the most important predictors for adverse outcomes of acute care (mortality, frequent readmissions, institutionalisation and long length of stay) are current illness, decline in physical functions and age. In addition, illness severity, co-morbidity, polypharmacy, cognitive decline, poor nutrition and gender are predictive for one or more of the outcomes [ 3].The Minimum Data Set for Acute Care (MDS-AC) instrument was developed to guide care within the hospital and to facilitate the transfer and sharing of information to the next provider of care, thus supporting integrated care. The MDS-AC instrument provides an opportunity to systematically collect information that is reliable on function and co-morbidity and could thus be a valuable addition to the future electronic medical record [ 4].The aim of this study is to investigate to what degree important predictors of adverse outcomes, if present according to the MDS-AC instrument during the first 24 h of care for older patients, were not documented in traditional hospital records in acute care wards in five Nordic countries. Hence, the MDS-AC information is assumed to be a gold standard. A secondary aim is to show that suspected deficient documentation is an international issue.

Nyckelord

Activities of Daily Living

Aged

Aged; 80 and over

Aging/*pathology

Catchment Area (Health)

Comorbidity

Female

Forms and Records Control

Geriatric Assessment

Hospitals

Humans

Male

Medical Records/*standards

Scandinavia

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)