Elderly-Friendly Hospitals, a Step towards Improving the Health of the Elderly- A Review Study

One of the important and effective strategies to promote the comprehensive health of the elderly is the establishment of elderly-friendly hospitals. The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics and components of elderly-friendly hospitals and its role and importance in promoting the health of the elderly.

This review study was conducted through searching Irandoc, SID, PubMed, Magiran, Google Scholar, Scopus and SienceDirect without time limitation and focused on Elderly, Hospital, Elderly-Friendly Hospital and Senior Friendly Hospital (in English and Persian). In the initial search, 45 articles were found. After reviewing the inclusion and exclusion criteria, finally 28 articles were included in the study based on their relevance to the subject.

The design of the physical environment of the hospitals was not completely based on principles and components of the elderly-friendly Hospitals and elderly client's conditions and needs. In most hospitals, care and services provided to the elderly were not based on elderly -friendly principles, and medical staff did not receive the necessary training in the field of geriatric care, and there were no specialists in geriatrics in most of these centers.

In order to achieve elderly-friendly health care in hospitals, it seems necessary to apply strategies and make changes in various aspects of management, support, supervision and optimization policies, staff training and physical environment.