Utilization of Health Care Services by Older Adults
The admission of the elderly into the various units of the hospital is perceived to be frequent with respect to their physiological responses. Persons navigating this age group are associated with a rapid body failure in a manner that dictates on their daily livelihoods. This implies that the prospect of having these persons as patients of the various hospitals is rather elevated. However, it is vital to quantify on the category of persons that depend increasingly on the medical routines. Senile is a term that is commonly utilized in the description of the elderly with respect to their rapid failing systems. This implies that the prospect of having these persons into the various hospital settings is faced with a number of challenges. These include the prospects of having them under admission on a frequent note. However, it is rather biased to categorize the elderly cumulatively without distinguishing the singular age groups. This review seeks to narrow on this intuition by conducting a comparative assessment of two distinct age groups and the respective gender as regards to the utilization of the Emergency Departments (ED), Outpatient departments (OD), and hospitals.
Evaluation
The evaluation is founded on the hospital attendance frequency of the two groups, age 65-74, and age 75 and above (represented as age 75+). The study is categorized along the description of gender in order to offer an insight on the most active group, as well as the viability of the eventual findings. However, prior to the evaluation of this data, it is essential to evaluate the life expectancy ratio in the United States. This is with respect to the scientific quantifications of the nation, and the eventual implication of the findings to the citizens.
This implies that the process of developing a distinguished approach onto the model of admission that is enticed by the study is rather limited towards the doctrines of collective approach. However, the presented data may describe the net admission of these patients in a manner that may offer an insight on the expectations from the other two categorization of admission. In this regard, it is essential to engage into an insight on the prospective events that map the admission under the emergency healthcare division. The work of Jane McCaskey and his colleagues seeks to offer an illustration of the structure of the entire emergence division, and with special consideration to the ages of the participants. This implies that the work plays a critical role in the evaluation of the presented topic. The emergency department is described as an essential outfit under the description of fabric that integrates hospitals into the community. As such, a distinction from other ‘normal’ departments is necessary and of for the outmost importance.
However, the utilization of the various emergence healthcare facilities is associated with the descriptive persons and the needs of the community. The elderly are described amongst the population that has grossly relied on these services in the population. In this regard, it is essential to point out an outline of their preference with respect to the gender of the patients. The description of the elderly patients in a community is rather reduced in terms of the capacity and the eventual size. However, this description deserves to be evaluated via the entity of the gathered data from the various data. The eventual presentation of the authors points out that the population of 75 years and above seems to be implicated on the increased admission of the various emergency admissions and outpatient services. However, the ratio is slightly close in relation amongst the gender parity, though women emerge at the top.
There has been an increase in the population of older adults worldwide and it is prospected that this group will increase in the coming years. The health care needs of older patients tend to be more intensive than that of the younger population. A majority of older adults increasingly seeks to receive health care in the emergency departments where they present complex medical conditions and stay longer for diagnostic services that require special service. The emergency department is likely to be utilized more intensively by older adults than the other areas of healthcare. In particular, the population in the 75+ group utilizes the ED more as compared to the population aged 65-74. According to a report presented by Hwang and Morrison as of 2002, about 58% of the 75-year-olds visited the ED. These older patients usually have an urgent condition that forces the health care providers to admit them into the critical care unit. It is also more likely that the older adults have a repeat visit and experience high rates of adverse consequences after they get discharged from the ED.
Samaras’ study seems to offer additional insight on the actual situation on the emergency division and the admission of the elderly. This is with respect to the percentage of the admission as reported in the various health care facilities across the United States via the emergence units. The admission of the respective patients into the unit seems to increase in accordance to the age of the population in consideration. On this regard, the ratio of the two prospects of admission with respect to the genders and ages of the patients is rather outlined. The population under the age of 75 and above has been inducted into a number of ailments in the healthcare facilities. However, the subsequent distribution of the patients with respect to the genders of the patients has indicated a slight difference in terms of the relation. The women seem to top admission under the emergency admission unit. This is slightly contrasting from the population category under the 65-74 years of age.
However, a further evaluation on the health implication that is shared between the two genders is of significant essence to the support of the presented conclusion. This is with respect to the prospect of allowing the utilization of the respective facilities as directed by the respective health care systems. The success of the health care system can be described to be placed on the balance line; with respect to the demands of the future advancements or developments. This is with respect to several of the concerns that assist in the elucidation of the image depicted by the current progress in the field and their potential impact towards the latter days of the system. Amongst these are concerns of such regulations governing the system, the age of the clients and gender orientation. In addition, concerns such as the prospect of the occurrence of unguided errors in the system and their subsequent impact may have a critical role to play in the shaping of the future for the system.
The emergency department’s role entails providing urgent medical services. The population aged above 75 years have a higher tendency of experiencing situations that demand services from ED as compared to those in the 65-74 age group. One of the significant areas that results in urgent conditions among older adults is the unintentional injuries that are caused by falls. A study conducted in New York showed that on average, an approximate 24,000 older adults aged above 75 years visit the emergency departments for services after experiencing injuries caused by falls. The study identified that about 9.7% of the older adults aged 65-74 utilized the emergency department. This proportion is lower than that of the adults aged above 75 which was found to be 31.5%. In relation to gender orientation, the males visited the emergency departments 1.4 times more than the females for urgent medical care after receiving injuries from falls. This implies that males and those aged above 75 years utilize the ED more than the females and those aged between 65 and 74 years. This description is supported by the findings illustrated in the initial sections of the data. The current prospect of the health care system has its own reservation on the aging population and the prospect of ensuring a cover for this class of the society.
Unfortunately, this is one of the concerns that may be described to be able to sneak in the future since it presumes the description of a stable hitch that is yet ready to be eradicated. The prospect of making a considerable gain on the concern rather reduces, though one cannot rule the panorama of developing a wild ambition on the cover of the population in the later future. The developed percentages by the respective authors offer an insight on the levels of admission to the various hospitals in the region is highly essential. This is with respect to both the emergency and outpatient sections. The two prospects are highlighted out as essential in respect to their contribution to the shaping of the healthcare service provision.
In Conclusion, the ratio of the two prospects of admission with respect to the genders and ages of the patients represents the disparity of utilizing the health care services between 65-74 year-aged and above-75-year aged patients. However, the subsequent distribution of the patients with respect to the genders of the patients has indicated a slight difference in terms of the relation. Such disparities are rather eminent in a health care system, hence their essence of the study. The demographic changes that have occurred in the population have influenced the percentages of the particular age groups that utilize the various health care services. Apparently, the population of older adults aged above 75 years requiring long-term care services and medical attention has increased more than that of older patients aged between 65 and 74 years. Females comprise the highest population in both age groups in regard to high utilization of the healthcare services. However, one of the areas that males dominate is in the utilization of the emergency departments for medical attention relating to injuries caused by falls.
References
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