The ageing of populations in high-income countries has increased the number of vulnerable older persons requesting medical care, including care for acute and complex illnesses that warrant medical management in equipped hospitals [1]. Despite this epochal epidemiological transition, acute-care hospital beds have been reduced in most high-income countries, in order to optimize the use of hospital resources and to contain economic costs by shifting most of the healthcare services for older persons from acute-care hospitals to the community [2].
