Geriatric consultation programs have been developed to service elderly patients in a number of acute care hospitals. Evaluation studies examining their utility have shown variable results. Suggested explanations for these inconsistent findings include differing study designs, various service delivery strategies, differing outcome measurements, and site-specific factors. The evidence suggests that the critical variable may well be the methods utilized in patient recruitment. Further work is required in a number of areas such as: (1) development of optimal targeting strategies, (2) determination of appropriate service composition and function, (3) study of how these programs interact with other components of a comprehensive geriatric program, (4) documentation of the long-term (1 year) impact on assessed patients, and (5) evaluation of the institutional impacts of these programs.
