Clinical geriatric departments in Germany - results of a survey

Background In Germany, the situation of geriatric medicine has improved sig nificantly over the past few years. Until now, though, there was little inf ormation available on the structure of the clinical geriatric departments. Since this information is vital to assess whether these departments can pro vide high-quality services, the German Federal Association of Clinical Geri atric Departments conducted a survey among its members. The goal was to gai n deeper insight into the structure of the geriatric acute hospitals and re habilitation units. Methods In 1999, member institutions were mailed a stan dardized questionnaire and all institutions (100%) returned the questionnai re to the association's central office. To increase data quality, data were screened and reports were generated for each institution. These reports we re returned to the institutions which were asked to verify them. Results Th is article shows that in 1998 acute geriatric hospitals I (n = 89), rehabil itation units (n = 52), acute day clinics (n=45) and rehabilitation day cli nics (n = 26) had - on average 60/60/15.3/14 beds/places and 828.15/677.3/1 64.2/125.9 patients. Occupancy rates averaged out at 88.7%/84.3%/86.4%/63.7 % and daily hospital rates at DM 401.4/322.4/293.8/243.2. Basically, all ge riatric institutions included in this survey had a multi-professional geria tric team. Patient-to-staff ratios for psychologists, social workers, ergo- , physio- and speech therapists were better in day clinics than in in-patie nt clinics and better in rehabilitation units than in acute hospitals. Geri atric institutions mainly focused on the treatment of neurological deficits . Most patients were admitted from other hospitals and discharged to their private residence. Conclusions The results of this survey indicate that esp ecially the acute hospitals are often not sufficiently staffed. Moreover, f urther efforts are necessary to clarify the indications for and modalities of geriatric day clinic treatment and rehabilitation. The data also show th at a categorical distinction between geriatric acute hospitals and rehabili tation units is not possible. However, further data collection and more det ailed analyses are needed.