Improving the care of older patients during the COVID-19 pandemic
- PDF / 486,726 Bytes
- 6 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 100 Downloads / 186 Views
POSITION PAPER
Improving the care of older patients during the COVID‑19 pandemic Angelo Bianchetti1,6,7 · Giuseppe Bellelli2,6,7 · Fabio Guerini1,6,7 · Alessandra Marengoni3,7 · Alessandro Padovani4,6 · Renzo Rozzini5,6,7 · Marco Trabucchi6,7 Received: 28 May 2020 / Accepted: 22 June 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has led to a dramatic crisis of Health Care Systems worldwide, and older people have been among the most disadvantaged. Specific recommendations and reports have been released both at International and National level, regarding the diagnosis and management of COVID-19 in the elderly. However, little has been proposed for an appropriate response to older, frail and multimorbid patients in different settings of care (acute care units, long term care facilities, nursing homes and primary care) and for the management of geriatric syndromes (i.e. delirium, sarcopenia, falls). We presume that the current pandemic of will leads to substantial changes in health care systems, and we suggest some key guide principles that could inspire the provision of healthcare services to older people and their families. These principles are primarily directed to physicians and nurses working in the geriatric field but could also be useful for other specialists. Keywords SARS-CoV-2 · COVID-19 · Elderly · Frailty
Introduction Up to day, Italy is the third country for confirmed cases of Corona Virus DIsease 19 (COVID-19) after the United States and Spain and the leading country in terms of deaths related to the virus. By May 14th reported cases and deaths reached 222,140 and 31,106, respectively [1]. The Severe All the authors contribute to drafting the manuscript. * Angelo Bianchetti [email protected] 1
Medicine and Rehabilitation Department, Istituto Clinico S.Anna Hospital, via del Franzone 31, 25122 Brescia, Italy
2
School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca and Acute Geriatric Unit, San Gerardo Hospital, Monza, Italy
3
Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Geriatric Medicine, Montichiari Hospital, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
4
Neurology Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
5
Geriatric Department, Fondazione Poliambulanza Istituto Ospedaliero Hospital, Brescia, Italy
6
Associazione Italiana di Psicogeriatria (AIP), Brescia, Italy
7
Società Italiana di Geriatria e Gerontologia (SIGG), Firenze, Italy
Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARSCoV-2) pandemic led to a dramatic crisis of the Italian Health Care System, either in primary, long term, and acute hospital care. The National Government and the different Regional Health Systems tried to mitigate the spreading of the outbreak by prompting various initiatives, sometimes driven by dissimilar perspectives on healthcare policies and by the different availability of local resources. The current pandemic revealed that a patient-centred care model is inadequate and needs to be replaced
Data Loading...
