43 minutes?

43 minutes a day-that is the average time hospitalized elderly patients are out of bed. As reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, a 2009 study examined 45 patients in a Veterans Administration hospital that were not delirious and were able to walk in the 2 weeks prior to hospitalization. Most of these patients' hospital stay was lying in bed, although they were willing and able to walk. There are several causes of this "epidemic of immobility". First, the elderly are warned frequently not to get up without help; both the patients and caregivers are fearful of falls. Secondly, a busy clinical unit does not always have the staffing to walk elderly patient. The elderly are very susceptible to detrimental effects of immobility, and less mobile patients are more likely to be discharged to institutions. We all need to work to reduce immobility in our hospitalized patients.