Adnan Menderes University Practice and Research Hospital Emergency Department evaluation of patients 65 years and older

Diagnosis and treatment of geriatric patients in emergency departments have some difficulties. Because most of the elderly patients are usually have different diseases and anamnesis obtained from the elderly patients was not true usually. Because most of the patients developed dementia and they don?t not now their own drugs exactly. For this reason, diagnosis and treatment of elderly patients in emergency departments is not easy. From this aspect, knowing the elderly patient profile presenting to Adnan Menderes University Emergency Department becomes important. Complaints, diagnosis, wards of admission, and mortality rates of patients older than 65 years, presenting to Adnan Menderes University Emergency Department from 1st January 2012 to 31st December 2012 were recorded retrospectively from patient records. 19,96% of all patients were in geriatric age group. 36.68% of patients were hospitalized. Overall mortality rate was 9.84%, which was 16.56% in hospitalized patients and 6.01% in patients treated as outpatient. Emergency Department Observation Room, Internal Medicine, Cardiology and General Surgery departments had the highest admission rates. High rates of geriatric patients applying to Adnan Menderes University Medical Faculty Hospital Emergency Department show the necessity for emergency staff to be informed and trained about geriatrics. Similar studies on younger patient populations would give opportunity for better comparisons.Key words: Geriatric patient, emergency services, hospitalization, mortality rate.