Thanks to the enabling of the Geriatrics Unit at Tijuana’s General Hospital, positive results have been obtained, according to Clemente Zúñiga Gil, facilities director.

He said that the unit has the capacity to treat 25 people with a multidisciplinary focus by geriatric doctors such as with treatment specialists and patient’s decision making.

They regularly treat chronic disease complications such as diabetes, arterial hypertension, cholesterol disorders, triglycerides, infections, pneumonia, cerebrovascular accidents (strokes), brain hemorrhages, and acute confusional states, also known as deliriums.

Zúñiga Gil explained that they also treat heart attacks, anginas, and chronic renal diseases. The patients of this third floor received multidisciplinary care from cardiologists, gastroenterologists, nephrologists, hematologists, psychiatrists, nutritionists, and physical rehabilitation experts, to mention a few.

Something special that is also offered is a neuropsychology specialist to evaluate cognitive functions, a very necessary service for elderly people.

Putting all geriatric patients in one single floor is something that happened quite recently, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Tijuana’s General Hospital, which facilitates and allows comprehensive care and follow ups to be carried out. Before this, there used to be long stays at the hospital’s emergency unit.

Currently, a faster recovery is achieved with better results while making everything more comfortable for all patients. Having them all on the same floor allows plans to be created and be followed up, since there is a well integrated team.

He stated that with geriatric residents, medicine students specializing in this area also help quite significantly. The focus of geriatrics is for patients to have the best health conditions and consultation follow ups at the same hospital.

Currently, the average stay time is six days, depending on the patient’s condition. “We want to discharge them soon, so they can recover quickly and go back to the condition they were at before getting sick,” Zúñiga Gil explained.

For her part, the head of the Geriatric Unit, Karla Aimeé Silva has made a call for relatives of elderly people to have them treated as soon as possible.

She stated that an elderly person can have a urinary infection, but have seemingly unrelated symptoms such as not eating, sleeping all day, and not responding.

“If we let them be for several days, the treatment is delayed and pathologies can worsen. This is why it is important that everyone knows that Tijuana’s General Hospital’s geriatric services are available, all handled by specialists that will deliver warm and friendly care to these people to give them the best health results,” she concluded.

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