Towards senior-friendly hospitals: an overview of programs, their elements and effectiveness in improving care.

Abstract

Comprehensive "senior-friendly hospital" (SFH)-programs have been developed to counteract negative health outcomes in hospitalized older adults. The aim of this narrative review was to provide an overview of published SFH-programs and their elements, and to summarize evidence of their effect on quality of care and patient satisfaction. A search of the databases Pubmed/Medline from inception to July 2023, and of governmental, regional and hospital websites was performed. Programs were earmarked as SFH-programs if they primarily focused on the hospital setting, and comprised a hospital-wide, multi-level approach and consisted of multiple elements. Articles and reports were included if participants were hospitalized and aged 60 years and older, and described the effect on quality of care or patient satisfaction. Articles focusing on specific patient groups or wards, or on a health system or network were excluded. Ten SFH-programs were identified, with mutual elements like 'organizational support', 'social climate and services', 'processes of care', and 'physical environment'. Only for the "Acute Care for Elders" program (USA), evidence was found showing positive effects on functional abilities, falls, delirium, length of stay, and patient satisfaction; effectiveness of other SFH-programs could not be found. Elements of SFH-programs may improve care for hospitalized older adults, but the evidence of their effectiveness is scarce.