Abstract

With the ageing of populations around the world, hospitals seeking to maximise the satisfaction of their patients will need to ensure their services meet the expectations of the growing segment of older patients. Four focus groups were conducted in Perth, Western Australia, to explore those aspects of a hospital stay that are considered to be most important to older patients. The focus group participants nominated nursing care, meals, admission procedures, communication processes and physical facilities as those aspects of hospital service that are of particular importance to older patients. They noted that these issues are likely to be relevant to some degree to all patients but that, due to the needs of older patients, they become especially critical in later years. These findings have similarities with those generated by other studies but are more extensive than described elsewhere and thus provide more detailed guidance for hospital managers seeking to ensure their facilities are senior-friendly.