[Management of avoidable acute transfers from an intermediate care geriatric facility to acute hospitals: critical aspects of an intervention protocol].

Objective: The unplanned transfers (UT) from post-acute intermediate care facilities, are associated with adverse outcomes for patients, and a significant cost to the system. We present a practical protocol and the design of an intervention study aimed at reducing avoidable UT from a geriatric post-acute rehabilitation setting to acute care hospitals.

Patients And Methods: A quasi-experimental non randomized study.

Geriatric Screening Tools to Select Older Adults Susceptible for Direct Transfer From the Emergency Department to Subacute Intermediate-Care Hospitalization.

Objectives: Early transfer to intermediate-care hospitals, low-tech but with geriatric expertise, represents an alternative to conventional acute hospitalization for selected older adults visiting emergency departments (EDs). We evaluated if simple screening tools predict discharge destination in patients included in this pathway.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Cohort study, including patients transferred from ED to the intermediate-care hospital Parc Sanitari Pere Virgili, Barcelona, during 14 months (2012-2013) for exacerbated chronic diseases.

Incidence and risk factors for unplanned transfers to acute general hospitals from an intermediate care and rehabilitation geriatric facility.

Objective: Unplanned acute hospital transfers (AT) from post-acute or long-term care facilities represent critical transitions, which expose patients to negative health outcomes and increase the burden of the emergency departments that receive these patients. We aim at determining incidence and risk factors for AT during the first 30 days of admission at an intermediate care and rehabilitation geriatric facility (ICGF).

Design And Setting: Prospective cohort study conducted in an ICGF of Barcelona, Spain.

[Benzodiazepine prescription in the elderly in different health care levels: characteristics and related factors].

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of benzodiazepine (BZD) prescription and the factors related to prescribing them in the elderly in the community, in an acute general hospital (AH) and in a convalescence geriatric unit (CGU).

Material And Methods: Retrospective study of 334 CGU inpatients discharged from an AH. A comprehensive geriatric assessment included functional and cognitive evaluation before hospitalization, at admission and at discharge from CGU (Barthel index, Lawton index and Folstein Mini-Mental State Examination), as well as comorbidity (Charlson index), polypharmacy and social situation.

Direct admission to intermediate care for older adults with reactivated chronic diseases as an alternative to conventional hospitalization.

Background: When reactivations of chronic diseases cannot be managed at home, postacute intermediate-care geriatric units (ICGUs) might provide adequate and specialized support to primary care, based on comprehensive geriatric assessment and rehabilitation.

Objectives: To explore if direct admission to ICGUs of older adults with reactivated chronic diseases or acute common conditions superimposed to chronic diseases might be an alternative clinical pathway to conventional acute hospitalization followed by intermediate care rehabilitation.

Methods: Quasiexperimental pilot study.

Olive oil consumption, BMI, and risk of obesity in Spanish adults.

Background: Olive oil is an energy-dense food frequently consumed in south European countries with increasingly high obesity prevalence. Evidence of the impact of olive oil consumption on BMI and the risk of obesity is limited. We analyzed this association taking into consideration the problem of energy underreporting.