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“Well, Mrs. Smith, looks like you’ll be going home tomorrow.” All too often, we tell older hospitalized patients that they’re ready for discharge without giving adequate thought to how they’ll cope at home. In this study of older patients (age, ≥70) who were admitted nonelectively to the general medical services of two Ohio hospitals, researchers examined how acute hospitalization affected such patients’ subsequent ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs).
Of 2279 patients, 799 were discharged with new loss of independence — compared with 2 weeks before hospitalization — in least one of five self-care ADLs (bathing, dressing, eating, transferring from bed to chair, and using the toilet). Of these 799 patients, only 30% had regain…