Geriatrics

At Tays, geriatric care and treatment is provided at Tays Hatanpää Hospital. Geriatrics focuses on the treatment and rehabilitation of diseases and syndromes occurring in elderly individuals. A multidisciplinary assessment of the patient’s overall situation is made, taking the physical, mental, functional and social aspects into account.

Geriatric care and treatment is based on a comprehensive evaluation of the patient’s situation (comprehensive geriatric assessment, CGA). In addition to acute illnesses, this evaluation takes into account the patient’s functional capacity, memory problems, mood, nutrition, medication, physical performance and social situation.

A multidisciplinary evaluation is often performed (by a physician, nurse, physiotherapist and social worker). Test methods vary from screening tests performed at inpatient wards to detailed memory tests and imaging examinations of the head and brain when investigating suspected memory disorders.

Elderly individuals with an acute illness are treated at the geriatric wards of Tays Hatanpää Hospital. The patients are usually admitted through Accident and Emergency Department Acuta or the acute wards of Tays Central Hospital.

If needed, the patients can be transferred to the rehabilitation wards of Rauhaniemi Hospital or to the Tammenlehväkeskus Rehabilitation Centre for further rehabilitation..

Geriatric treatment at Tays

There are two acute geriatric wards in the Tays Hatanpää Department of Geriatrics and General Practise: the Orthogeriatric Ward and the Geriatrics Centre. The patients are usually referred there by their personal physician. Our geriatric specialists can be consulted and also participate in the treatment of elderly patients at the other specialist wards of Tays Central Hospital and Tays Hatanpää Hospital.

Geriatric outpatient clinics examine and treat various diseases and debilitating syndromes occurring in senior citizens. Memory disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and Lewy body dementia, form the most important disease group.

Various infections, heart failure and injuries caused by falls are some of the conditions treated at the geriatric wards. Acute confusion is also a common reason for hospitalisation. Fractures in elderly patients are treated at the Orthogeriatric Ward.

Geriatric treatment involves not only taking care of the patient’s acute health issue but also identifying any underlying diseases and syndromes, such as memory problems, depression, malnutrition and gerasthenia, also known as the frailty syndrome. These geriatric syndromes are common in elderly patients but are often unidentified. However, they have a major impact on the patient’s functional capacity and recovery from an acute illness.

Elderly patients are treated in most medical specialties, and about 15% of patients receiving specialised medical care are at least 80 years old. The proportion of elderly patients is particularly high at cardiological wards, orthopaedic wards and internal medicine emergency wards.

In addition to the acute geriatric wards and the Geriatric Outpatient Clinic, the geriatric specialists at Tays engage in close collaboration with cardiologists, orthopaedists and surgeons, for example.

Personal physicians treat the clients of home care services, mainly in the City of Tampere, in close collaboration with the service providers.

Memory tests of elderly people living in Tampere and Orivesi are performed at the Geriatrics Centre of Tays Hatanpää Hospital. In other municipalities, these tests are generally performed at the local health centres. Neurologists are responsible for the diagnosis and treatment of memory disorders in patients of working age.

Person in charge

Head of Department, Chief Physician Saila Haapasalmi