JGEM Article and Fact Sheet: Why Provide Specialized Care for Older Adults in the ED?
The Journal of Geriatric Emergency Medicine (JGEM) has published a one-pager and corresponding fact sheet on, "Why Provide Specialized Care for Older Adults in the ED?"
The article discusses several facts about geriatric emergency care (listed below) and expounds on these high-level points with statistics and other forms of evidence to detail the importance of providing specialized care for seniors in emergency departments (EDs).
- Patients over the age of 65 made more than 21 million emergency department (ED) visits in 2015.
- Older adults account for a disproportionate number of potentially avoidable patient hospital admissions from the ED.
- Geriatric EDs can reduce the likelihood of avoidable patient admissions to the hospital.
- Geriatric ED programs have been shown to increase patient satisfaction.
- Physical therapy services in the ED are associated with reduced ED revisits.
- Older Adults with Dementia Revisit the ED at Significantly Higher Rates
- Delirium can be fatal for older adults, underscoring the need for proper identification and management in the ED
The one-pager and fact sheet were developed with support from West Health.
To read the article, click here.
To download the fact sheet, click here.
