The study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, found that per 100,000 elderly adult ED visits in the U.S., 7,321 of those visits were for issues relating to infectious disease. Of those visits, 57.2 percent resulted in hospitalizations.
“With the rapid growth of the elderly population in the U.S., infectious diseases continue to be an important social problem. Our findings call for strategies to reduce infectious disease-related morbidity and healthcare utilization as a national priority for research, health policy, and community action,” Tadahiro Goto, MD, lead author of the paper, said in a statement.
More articles on infection control:
CDC: Flu activity up for 2nd week in a row
CMS launches 3-year pilot project to improve infection control assessment for hospitals
Putting patient safety and quality data where you might not expect it: Johns Hopkins Medicine goes performance-transparent with dashboards
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