Toronto doctors create new initiative to get seniors moving

A group of researchers and geriatric doctors in Toronto are looking to implement a new program in area hospitals aimed at getting seniors moving during their stays, CTV News reports.

Seniors who must go to the hospital for problems ranging from falls to pneumonia, face certain setbacks even though they’re there to get better. Many times elders in hospital settings don’t get up and move around enough.

In order to stop this from happening, a group of doctors from St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto are looking to start a new initiative titled Mobilization of Vulnerable Elders in Ontario (Move On) that looks to keep seniors moving during their stays in hospitals, the source reports.

“If they lose their ability to do any of these activities of daily living while they’re in hospital or lose any of their mobility or walking ability, then that’s going to increase their length of stay, increase the chance that they’re going to have to go to a rehab facility, in some cases increasing the chance that they might have to go to a long-term care facility if they really become impaired from a functional point of view,” Sharon Straus, a doctor involved with the program told the publication.

Under the initiative, older patients at the hospital will try to follow their normal routines during their stays to help them stay refreshed and on track.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the normal length of a hospital stay for a person with pneumonia is 5.2 days. Elders living at home after a stint in the hospital might benefit from having a medical alert smartwatch as this wearable device gives a person a means to call for help in an instant.