Correspondence
Disregard for Competence
Reading the review on the particular challenges of perioperative medicine for older patients, one could easily reach the conclusion that neither departments of geriatrics nor geriatric expertise exist in acute care hospitals in the Federal Republic of Germany (1). At no point is it noted that, across the country, day-in and day-out, qualified geriatricians and geriatric teams are virtually everywhere in many hospitals, occupying themselves with concrete geriatric problems in the acute inpatient setting. Topics such as preoperatively restricted mobility, undernutrition, questions of early rehabilitation, and questions of delirium prophylaxis and treatment are addressed here competently. The authors very correctly state that patients can receive the optimal benefits only once all physicians and therapists know and implement the concept. The key points of geriatric work have been firmly in place for many years, especially with respect to the benefits of early rehabilitation; nonetheless, the authors themselves do not seem to know these points, even though they were in contact with the appropriate specialist society, according to the acknowledgments. In my view, the competence in geriatrics that has accumulated and been painstakingly developed over 20 years in the Federal Republic of Germany has not earned such a disregard.
DOI: 10.3238/arztebl.2019.0373b
PD Dr. med. H. Burkhardt
II. Medizinische Klinik
Sektion Altersmedizin
UMM Universitätsmedizin Mannheim, Germany
geriatrie@umm.de
Conflict of interest statement
The author declares that no conflict of interest exists.
| 1. | Olotu C, Weimann A, Bahrs C, Schwenk W, Scherer M, Kiefmann R: The perioperative care of older patients—time for a new, interdisciplinary approach. Dtsch Arztebl Int 2019; 116: 63–9 VOLLTEXT |
