The 1-year trajectory of older patients transferred from an intensive care unit to an acute geriatric unit.

Purpose: The benefits of intensive care (in terms of the maintenance of functional independence and a reduction in the mortality rate in older patients) are still subject to debate, and the value of geriatric care of older adults discharged from an intensive care unit (ICU) has not been extensively studied. The objective of the present study was to examine the 1-year trajectory of patients transferred from an ICU to an acute geriatric unit (AGU).

Methods: We conducted an ambispective, descriptive, single-center study of older adults aged 75 and over from the DAMAGE cohort and having been transferred from an ICU to an AGU.

Impact of a Clinical Decision Support System on the Change over Time in the Anticholinergic Load in Geriatric Patients: The SADP-Antichol Study.

Purpose: Anticholinergic drugs can cause adverse events (AEs) in older adults. Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) can detect prescriptions with a high anticholinergic load. Our starting hypothesis was that the anticholinergic load could be reduced by combining a CDSS with a strategy for generating pharmacist interventions.

Assessment of neurofluid dynamics in relation to clinical improvement after tap-test: pilot study.

Purpose: Idiopathic Normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) is an under-diagnosed in elderly patients but none of the diagnostic tests are currently sufficiently sensitive or specific. The objective of this study was to analyze the dynamics of neurofluids by PC-MRI in relation to clinical evolution as measured using the iNPH grading scale after tap-test.

Method: We prospectively included patients with suspected iNPH.

New horizons in the analysis of hospital readmissions of older adults.

This short communication highlights analytical methods that can be usefully applied to the problem of hospital readmissions of older adults. The limitations of the models currently used in studies of hospital readmissions are described. In summary, analyses of hospital readmissions face two important methodological and statistical problems not accounted for by these currently used statistical models: the potential recurrence of readmissions, and death, a terminal event which absorbs the readmission process.

Factors Associated with Transfer from an Acute Geriatric Unit to a Post-Acute Care Facility among Community-Dwelling Patients: Results from the DAMAGE Cohort.

Background: Acute geriatric units (AGUs) require efficient discharge planning tools. Risk factors for discharge from an AGU to post-acute care (PAC) have not previously been investigated in detail.

Methods: The objective is to identify risk factors for PAC transfer.