Population aging is a global trend, and although life expectancy is lower on average in Russia than in other developed countries, people nevertheless die much later than several decades ago. In many respects, this positive dynamics was achieved due to the fact that pensioners and aging people receive better medical care. A special institution that bases its activity on the treatment and maintenance of the body of those over 60 has a geriatric center. St. Petersburg is a city in which the number of elderly people has already reached a quarter of the total population.
Health Science
Geriatrics is a special area of medicine. Mainly because doctors and junior staff working in specialized geriatric institutions have to communicate with older people. Each of them, due to its age, has on average 2-3 chronic diseases, while the general state of health is complicated by natural processes associated with aging, as well as psychological problems. Any geriatric center works in the direction of providing psychological, and sometimes psychiatric support to their patients.
Only an integrated approach and special attention to patients will help the doctor-geriatrician establish contact with his ward.
Unfortunately, the number of specialists working in this field in the Russian Federation is still small, and not all of them have sufficient training. Such centers are supported at the state level, but most of them still have a lot of work to do to reach the level of Western institutions. The city geriatric center in St. Petersburg, however, is already among the ten best medical institutions for the elderly in Europe.
Keeping up with the times
This medical institution as a geriatric center was founded only in 1997, although work in this direction has been carried out by specialists of the institution since 1985. It was then that at the clinic, which was initially one of the units of the Uritsky Hospital, and then the City Hospital No. 18, there was a doctor’s office, which collaborated with elderly people. The modern geriatric center began with one department, but now it is a multidisciplinary institution located in several buildings and operating in several main directions.
Among them are the first emergency care for older men and women and the treatment of cardiac, neurological, urological problems, the center also provides palliative care, organizes psychological support for patients, their rehabilitation and socialization.
Nowadays, the organization is provided with modern equipment, a professional clinical diagnostic laboratory, a staff of highly qualified personnel is working here who is prepared to help older people, taking into account the specifics of patients in this age category. In addition, the nursing staff not only provides services to improve the health of their patients, but also carries out important work to collect information about their wards.
Nurses keep records of patients in which they note the effectiveness of the treatment, the psychological state of the patients. Thus, the Social Geriatric Center carefully and thoroughly examines the history of their patients, and it is easier for doctors to identify the real prerequisites for their worsening health status.
Center structure
The medical institution carries out work in several directions. The Fontanka Geriatric Center is a hospital that receives tens of thousands of patients annually. So in the conditions of a clinic and a hospital, doctors on average conduct consultations more than 70 thousand times, almost 100 thousand people undergo rehabilitation here. Doctors have quite good equipment at their disposal, so up to 235 patients can be treated at the same day hospital, and 20 more places are allocated for those whom doctors provide outpatient care.
In 2017, two services separated from the main building of the hospital - a polyclinic and an audiology unit. These units are now located at Riga Avenue, 21 (St. Petersburg). The geriatric center has the following structure:
- Outpatient consultation office.
- Department of remote medical and social assistance and the control point "Panic Button".
- Audiological department.
- Hospital (8 departments).
- Laboratory.
- Department of Radiation Therapy.
- Functional diagnostics room.
- Pharmacy subordinate to the Center.
- Citywide department engaged in the work of the methodological direction.
- Household services.
The geriatric center provides assistance to elderly residents throughout St. Petersburg, and other organizations base their work on the basis of the experience of this institution.
Range of Services
Patients turn to the center with diseases that most often affect people over 60. These are problems with the musculoskeletal system, and increased fragility of bones, and endocrine disorders of the body (including diabetes mellitus), and incontinence. A large proportion of visits to the center are patients with pronounced problems with auditory perception (hearing loss), as well as dementia.
In a hospital, medical care is provided in the following departments:
- geriatric;
- cardiology;
- palliative medicine;
- traumatology and orthopedics;
- psychiatric
- urological;
- rehabilitation;
- intensive care and resuscitation.
In addition, the Center has the opportunity to undergo a comprehensive comprehensive examination, a good diagnostic base has been created here. Severely ill patients who need constant care and medical supervision, but cannot receive proper supervision at home, live in a hospice.
Who can contact the geriatric center on Fontanka for help?
The main category of patients in this center are people older than 60 years. Referral for consultation and treatment in a day or permanent hospital can be given by the attending physician of the patient. In addition, outpatient specialists from the Center itself and other medical and social institutions, private practitioners, geriatricians from veteran houses, and disabled homes have this right.
When issuing a referral, they are required to adhere to the established form (f. 057 / y-04), on which will be the signature of the doctor who examined the patient, his personal seal, as well as the stamp of the medical organization in which he works.
People who have not reached the age of 60 can also turn to the Center, but only if they have premature aging of the body.
The order of admission and the sequence of patients
You can make an appointment for consultation in many ways. There are several communication channels for this, including telephone, direct contact with the institution itself, as well as electronic registry. The geriatric center accepts online applications on its official website in the "Appointment" tab.
For admission, you must have all documents with you. This is a patient’s passport, referral to hospitalization, an extract from an outpatient card with ready-made tests that were made no more than one month ago. There are also a number of citizens who are entitled to benefits on admission. These are Heroes of the USSR and the Russian Federation, Knights of the Order of Labor and the Order of Glory, Heroes of Socialist Labor and their Widows (widowers).
Financing, paid services of a medical institution
The City Geriatric Medical and Social Center of St. Petersburg is a budget organization. Its financing is the task of the state and sponsors. The predominant number of services for patients is provided free of charge, but there is also something that you must pay for yourself.
Also, the Center provides 5 places that operate on self-financing. Such chambers have a level of increased comfort. Patients may be asked to install a fridge, TV, electric kettle in their room for an additional fee.
Patient opinion
Reviews about this institution are not always good. Patients note the low level of organization of the Center, the "grandfather" methods of work, the lack of a computerized system where staff can enter information about each patient, but this is not so much a drawback of the institution itself, as Russian medicine in general.
Many also do not like the conditions in which older people have to live. Due to their age, they need comfort, warmth and good nutrition more than others, which the state medical institution is not able to provide them with.
However, it is much more important that the staff as a whole works professionally, older people can always talk to responsive doctors, nurses and paramedics and always receive high-quality medical care.