October 23, 2015
Grey's Anatomy: Improving Care for Hospitalized Elders
Elderly patients often have negative complications and outcomes when they are hospitalized, because they do not receive the specialized care that they require. Elders lose strength quicker than the average patient, and often have cognitive impairment that can complicate their care and increase their risk for delirium. A team at Baystate Medical Center sought to remedy this problem by creating the Acute Care of Elders pilot program, with the goal of eventually having a full geriatric and palliative unit at the hospital. I worked as a research assistant for this pilot program collecting data about the frailty, cognition, and independence of the patients who qualified. I also attended rounds to discuss the patients that I met with and maintained a database of information about the pilot participants. Through this internship I learned about the variety of careers that exist within healthcare and expanded my interest in public health.
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