Designing and describing an electronic referral system to facilitate direct hospital admissions.

Background: In France, the progressive use of emergency departments (EDs) by primary care providers (PCPs) as a point of access to hospitalization for nonurgent patients is one of the many causes of their overcrowding. To increase the proportion of direct hospital admissions, it is necessary to improve coordination between PCPs and hospital specialists. The objective of our work was to describe the design and implementation of an electronic referral system aimed at facilitating direct hospital admissions.

[A tool for improving the transition between hospital and community care for the elderly].

The hospital-community interface represents a real challenge in the care of elderly people. A lack of coordination and communication is the main obstacle to ensuring the fluidity of this pathway. On a definite territory, a new hospital-community liaison sheet was developed as the result of a collaborative approach and then evaluated.

Half of elderly patients routinely treated for colorectal cancer receive a sub-standard treatment.

Background: Several database studies report a lack of care in elderly patients with colorectal cancer.

Purpose: To describe the management of elderly patients admitted for colorectal cancer; to identify factors associated with standard management according to recommendations and to study factors influencing the survival.

Patients And Methods: All consecutive patients over 75 years managed for a colorectal adenocarcinoma in our hospital from 1995 to 2000 and followed until 2006 were retrospectively included.

Bacteriuria in a geriatric hospital: impact of an antibiotic improvement program.

Objectives: To prospectively evaluate a management approach to bacteriuria including advice from an infectious diseases consultant (IDC) in geriatric inpatients.

Design: Prospective study from July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2004.

Setting: A 205-bed geriatric university-affiliated hospital.