MEDICALIZATION OF INFORMATION-SYSTEMS IN INTERNAL-MEDICINE AND GERIATRICS - A TRUE MEDICAL CHALLENGE

Elderly people-constitute an ever growing part of short-stay hospital patients. At the moment 25 % of these patients age aged 75 or more. Th e demographic curve, the effect of public health policies favouring tr eatment at home and the new characteristics of demand for care by the oldest patients will undoubtedly result in an increasing number of the se hospitalizations. This tendency has repercussions on the organizati on of hospital structures, but it also raises the problems of specific ity of consumption of goods and medical hospital units by elderdly pat ients and of their financing as part of budget allotments. The progres sive but imperative installation, forced on us by decrees, of medicali zed management tools (e.g. the Information System Medicalization Progr amme) in public hospitals and some private clinics throws doubt on the value of this tool to describe the stays of elderly people.