The Senior Emergency Center

by Dr. Bill Thomas

On the Facebook, Patricia G. Kallsen writes…

Videos are fine; please share a few quotes from your talk on “senior ED”–a new concept for some of us. thanks

This is a fun challenge to boil things down.

1) Typical emergency departments are optimized for the acute care of ill and injured adults and children. People who have accompanied frail older people into the ER know first hand that these environments create many difficulties for older people.

2) The American population will grow older each and every day for the next half century. Aging is changing our society so we need to change our health care system.

3) Making emergency care better serve the needs of elders requires three distinct types of changes.

a) Changes to the physical setting so that care is delivered in a setting that makes the most of elders’ unique sensory patterns. To be specific, we need to change how light, sound, touch, temperature and taste are perceived by the people we are caring for.

b) Changes to the human environment including more and better education regarding the best ways to care for older people and a direct attack on ageism in the ER.

c) Changes in the organizational structure of the Emergency Center with better integration of social workers and pharmacists and better post visit planning.  Also the hospital needs to commit to an ongoing program of evaluation of improvement for its Senior Emergency Center.

The good news is that the Port Huron team is revved up, full of questions, and dedicated to improving the care they deliver to acutely ill and injured older people.  It was a dynamite day.