Profiling care and benchmarking best practice in care of hospitalized elderly - The Geriatric Institutional Assessment Profile

This article reports on a new instrument, the Geriatric Institutional Asses sment Profile (GIAP), developed to assess (1) hospital workers' knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions regarding care of geriatric patients, and (2) th e perceived adequacy of an institutional environment to serve geriatric pat ients' needs. Findings are reported from 303 questionnaires completed by he alth care employees from a 658-bed academic medical center. Internal consis tency estimates were consistently high for the various components of the GI AP. Factor analysis was performed to examine underlying dimensions of knowl edge and institutional environment. The GIAP has the potential to narrow th e gap between actual and best practice in geriatric care by identifying sta ff information needs and concerns, as well as institutional barriers and fa cilitators to providing quality geriatric hospital care.