[Impact of geriatric teleconsultations on hospitalization of elderly living in nursing homes].

The clinical situation and complexity of the medical care of elderly living in nursing homes accounts for a high risk of hospitalization. Geriatric teleconsultations would be one of the solutions proposed to prevent unplanned hospitalizations. Our objective was to evaluate the impact of geriatric teleconsultations on hospitalizations of elderly living in nursing homes. This is a descriptive, retrospective, single-center study of elderly people living in 11 nursing homes in North-West Vendée who received a geriatric teleconsultation and whom the general practitioner would have hospitalized in the absence of teleconsultation. We observed the occurrence of an unscheduled hospitalization within 7 days of the teleconsultation. Thus, 48 patients were included, aged 85.6±6.4. Geriatric teleconsultations prevented hospitalization for 83,3% of cases. The problems related to a psychiatric pathology or a dementia were inversely associated with post-teleconsultation hospitalization (OR=0.077; p=0,01). The geriatric teleconsultation seems to be a tool allowing the reduction of hospitalizations of the elderly living in nursing homes. These results need to be confirmed by other studies.