The health system in Australia is grappling with how best to provide health care to older people in conditions of reduced inpatient beds and an ageing population. Health system managers favour programmes that result in reduced length of hospital stay. We report our hospital's experience in developing geriatric programmes of excellence that are based on comprehensive geriatric assessment and across the continuum of care, coupled with built environment, teaching, and research. Between 2007 and

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... 2, the programmes contributed to a 2-day reduction in acute length of stay for patients aged 80 years and older at the hospital. This translated to 8070 bed days or 22 beds saved per year.