Geriatric Unit

The key activity of the Geriatric Unit, Division of Internal Medicine, is to provide health care in which the comprehensive geriatric assessment serves as the guideline for maintaining, regaining or improving the health and independence of acutely or chronically ill and fragile elderly patients. Acute illnesses or multiple chronic diseases that endanger an individual’s independence are not related to age, yet they are most commonly observed in individuals over 75 years of age.

The staff at the Geriatric Unit is well aware that people are increasingly exceptional as they age, even more so if age is accompanied by disease. We pay great attention to the fact that the elderly often seek help for problems that are not the actual cause of illness, but reflect the deterioration of the weakest link in their health. We know how to identify the needs of ill elderly people, which are often quite different from the needs of those struck by illness in the prime of their life.

As personal needs and signs of illness are unique to an individual, patients and their relatives or caretakers are treated by a multidisciplinary team of experienced medical specialists and healthcare, physiotherapy and clinical pharmacology experts. When necessary, nutrition and social work experts are consulted as well. Treatment of patients proceeds according to an individualized treatment plan in a systematic and strictly coordinated approach rooted in the principles of evidence-based medicine, allowing us to identify and treat a greater number of conditions in comparison to non-geriatric departments.

We regard respect for an individual’s differences, their values, needs and privacy, as well as professionalism and safety as our key values. Our role is not only to assist patients and their relatives in regaining their health, but also to serve as their advocates in the maze of the healthcare and social system.

Hospital Ward

Hospital treatment takes place in calm, bright, airy and spacious rooms occupied by one or two patients. Each room is equipped with a bathroom and toilet adapted to the needs of old people.

We provide treatment that best addresses the needs of patients whose ability to provide for themselves decreases to the point where they may no longer be able to live in home environment, and the majority of our patients is bedridden. What is most characteristic of our treatment, however, is that it does not end with hospital discharge. When necessary, our multidisciplinary team keeps up to date with an individual’s health even after they had already returned to their home environment.

Geriatric Clinic

In our clinical work, we strive to adapt to the needs of individual patients and offer them help in their time of need. The Geriatric Clinic offers treatment to:

• Old patients with numerous simultaneous diseases or illnesses, in particular those suffering from functional deterioration, after unexpected admission to the ER.
• Old patients often admitted to hospital or the ER.
• Old patients that have fallen at least twice in the last 6 months with no identifiable reasons, in particular if they have suffered injuries.
• Old patients suffering from diabetes or osteoporosis.
• Old patients suffering from numerous simultaneous diseases or illnesses that require active treatment.
• Old patients with newfound cancer that could require difficult or burdensome treatment.
• Old patients with unexplained loss in body weight or functionality.

Doctor’s Office

The Geriatric Unit also encompasses a Doctor’s Office, which provides comprehensive medical treatment to patients 18 years of age or older as well as preventive screening, detection and treatment of acute disease, treatment of chronic diseases or illnesses and rehabilitation after acute illness or injury.

Insured persons can visit the Doctor’s Office without a medical referral form if their primary care physician is a member of our staff. Health care is provided by a specialist in general and family medicine that is qualified to treat health issues of the elderly on the primary level.

The Doctor’s Office of the Geriatric Unit is exceptional in that it benefits from the support of specialist doctors at the Geriatric Unit and other experts at the Dr Peter Držaj Hospital (Department of Hypertension, Department of Rheumatology, Clinical Institute of Clinical Biochemistry and Clinical Institute of Radiology).