Are Elderly Patients Getting Enough Occupational Therapy?

Abstract

One hundred patients (mean age 80.6 years) were prospectively studied with regard to delay in occupational therapy assessment and quantity of therapy in a department of medicine for the elderly. There was a mean delay of 2.2 days in assessment and each patient received an average of 4 hours less therapy than recommended. Home visits were carried out on 31 patients, who waited an average of 3.9 days for them to occur. These delays have implications in terms of quality of care delivered to elderly patients requiring rehabilitation and costs in terms of wasted expenditure, as well as adverse effects on other medical specialties.