Medical screening of old people accepted for residential care.

Medical screening of 100 old people at the time of their acceptance for admission to residential (part 3) care revealed a great deal of previously unreported yet treatable illness. As a result of screening, alternative care was thought more appropriate in 32 cases--hospital admission in 16, sheltered housing in 4, and remaining at home in 12. It is therefore suggested that the time of translocation of an old person from independent to institutional living is a time when medical screening is particularly appropriate.