PUBLICATION DATE:
Diario EL PAÍS
Pioneer in the design and accomplishment of a specific program for the care of the elderly, the British Hospital will choose October as the Month of the Elderly and will make available to hospital scheme members and users a series of activities focused on prevention and health education for this age group.
As part of its policy of seeking excellence in the services it provides, more than seven years ago the British Hospital developed the Senior Citizen Program (PAM), a care modality for adults over 75 years of age who, for some reason, face difficulties in receiving close follow-up from the health system.
In response to this problem, the British Hospital designed and implemented “a care model focused on the elderly, in which priority is given to working together with the family and caregivers,” recalled Dr. Malena Barrios, a PAM representative.
The reasons that prevent an elderly person from adequately following up on their health can be various, for example, motor, mental or family-related.
The aim was “to be able to have a close follow-up with scheduled visits according to the needs of each patient. If the case requires it, we are closer, more present, with more visits and, in many cases, we accompany them until the end of their life,” explained Barrios.
Many of the patients are in long-stay homes and others are not, so in each case the response and the form that the PAM approach takes is different.
In all cases the approach is multidisciplinary. The PAM team is made up of doctors, mostly geriatricians, physiatrists, a social worker, a psychologist, a physiotherapist, and a team of specialized nurses.
The role of nursing is fundamental in the control of patients at home and in the construction and maintenance of the direct link with the family or caregivers and with the patient.
The PAM is a nursing team specialized in geriatrics, which includes training in special care, such as skin care, which is so important in older adults, to prevent pressure ulcers (bedsores).
Barrios recalled that the WHO declared the decade from 2020 to 2030 as the decade of healthy aging, seeking to improve the lives of older people, their families and the communities in which they live, and maintained that the PAM is perfectly aligned with this paradigm.
“That is the prevention model to follow and we do it with enthusiasm. We promote healthy aging, which implies, among other things, doing physical activity according to the age and condition of each person, having recreational social activity and maintaining a healthy diet,” summarized the specialist.
“The British Hospital program gives us a lot of peace of mind, we feel accompanied and dad, protected. The team takes care of following up permanently, monitors the risk factors and guides us in his care,” summarized María del Carmen, whose father enjoys the benefits of the PAM.
Within the framework of the Month of the Elderly, the PAM team will propose prevention and education activities to members and users of the British Hospital, among which the falls of the elderly stand out, which “are not a normal event and as such require adequate intervention.”
Barrios agreed with María del Carmen regarding the approach of the program and said that the results obtained so far are very positive.
“We are proud to have a multidisciplinary program that serves a group of more fragile members, due to the stage of life they are in, with very good results in terms of care, well-being, follow-up and willingness to respond to their requirements,” said the specialist.
In 2023, the PAM obtained the ISO 9001 certification for the quality of its management processes. The British Hospital Insurance is the only one that makes a specific care program available to the community, focused on the elderly, their family and their caregivers.