Randomized Controlled Trial of Health Care to Elderly Patients.

Managers at St. Olavs University Hospital and the City of Trondheim local authority decided in 2001 to establish a reinforced department at a nursing home with a multicomponent approach to patient treatment.

In the study treatment at a nursing home will be compared with conventional treatment in ordinary hospital beds in medical, surgical and orthopedic departments at a hospital. Participating doctors at the hospital together with general practitioners shall develope inclusion criteria through Delphi technique. Eligible participants will be hospitalized from their ordinary home and expected to return to home after treatment. When an eligible patient is identified and accepted for inclusion, randomization will be performed by the Clinical Research Department at the Faculty of Medicine.