Hospitals and Disability in Elders

Hospitals are dangerous for elders. If you care for a hospitalized elder and can read one article that will "change for the better how you care for them," GeriPal recommends this one (From the JAMA, in which activities of daily living are given the acronym ADLs!):

In older patients, acute medical illness that requires hospitalization is a sentinel event that often precipitates disability. This results in the subsequent inability to live independently and complete basic activities of daily living (ADLs). This hospitalization-associated disability occurs in approximately one-third of patients older than 70 years of age and may be triggered even when the illness that necessitated the hospitalization is successfully treated.