Ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the America’s Best Hospitals for geriatric care in 2007 and 2008, UC Irvine Medical Center offers the most comprehensive care for seniors in Orange County. UC Irvine Healthcare is one of the few medical groups in the nation to have a large staff of board-certified geriatricians , physicians who receive advanced training to care for older adults.

UC Irvine Douglas Hospital, which opened in March 2009, was designed to meet the medical and emotional needs of our patients, including older patients. The support of family and loved ones is critical to the healing process. In the new hospital, older patients benefit from spacious, mostly private rooms outfitted with daybeds that make it comfortable for family members to stay overnight with their loved one. This may be especially comforting to seniors who are struggling with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Older patients admitted to the hospital are also followed by geriatric hospitalists, who coordinate individual patients’ care during their hospital stay. In addition, UC Irvine Healthcare has board-certified specialists in internal and geriatric medicine, these geriatric hospitalists are specially trained to ensure that treatments and medications are appropriate for older patients.

As Orange County’s only university hospital, UC Irvine also conducts clinical studies that may give older patients access to potentially breakthrough treatments.