Skilled nursing facilities as a setting for comprehensive care of older people with advanced cancer: a model of care in the post oncologic stage.
METHODS
We surveyed the elderly cancer patients admitted to the Skilled Nursing Wards of Shmuel Harofe Hospital, Geriatric Medical Center, during a 5-year period.


RESULTS
The 304 elderly patients admitted with advanced cancer represented 16% of the skilled nursing patients admitted during this period. Their average time of survival was 4.2 months, ranging from 9.1 for breast cancer to 1.8 months for gastric cancer. Ninety-five percent were severely dysfunctional, and all had a high rate of medical complications.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study reveals the benefits of a skilled nursing system that provides comprehensive care, flexibility, and continuity of care at a difficult and demanding stage of this illness. This model functions at reasonable cost, and we recommend it for the care of elderly patients with advanced cancer in the post oncologic stage.
Leibovitz
A
A
Shmuel Harofe Hospital, Geriatric Medical Center, affiliated with the Sackler School Of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel.
Habot
B
B
Lobart
E
E
Gil
L
L
Walach
N
N