Geriatric Emergency Department
Learn how specialized geriatric emergency care is transforming healthcare experiences and outcomes for older adults.
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Celebrating Two Years of Impact — Vituity and West Health Transform Emergency Care for Older Adults
Two years ago, Vituity and West Health Institute joined forces around a shared vision: to transform emergency care for older adults nationwide. As the number of older patients visiting emergency departments (EDs) will climb 28% over the next decade, our partnership aims to ensure that every older adult receives high quality, age-friendly healthcare.Vituity recognized that many of our EDs needed st...
Generational Health: A Blueprint for Systemwide Care Transformation for Older Adults
As America’s population ages, hospitals and health systems are reimagining how to deliver care that truly meets the needs of older adults.In this episode of the Advancing Health podcast, Dr. Jon Zifferblatt, executive vice president and chief strategy officer at West Health, joins Dr. Diane Wintz, critical care specialist and medical director of the Trauma Program at Sharp Memorial Hospital, to di...
Forging Aligned Partnerships Between Value Based Care Organizations & Geriatric Emergency Departments: A Toolkit for Geriatric Emergency Departments
Value-Based Care Organizations (VBCOs) can often provide additional disposition options or outpatient resources that GED clinicians are not aware of or do not know how to easily access, such as acute care at home. At West Health, we believe that VBCOs and Geriatric Emergency Departments (GEDs) can forge aligned partnerships to improve the cost and care trajectory for older adults by reducing unnec...
The Inflection Point in Care for Older Adults: Transforming Care for America’s Aging Population
For decades, healthcare in America has operated on a simple premise that more care meant better care. With the availability of more procedures, more tests, and more specialists the assumption is that with more treatment leads to better quality care. While this approach is logical, is it the most compassionate care we can provide when it comes to caring for our most vulnerable populations?Consider ...
West Health Supports Age-Friendly Hospital Measure Adopted by CMS
West Health, a family of nonprofit organizations focused on healthcare and aging, announces its full support of the new Age-Friendly Hospital Measure just adopted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The new quality measure, which takes effect Jan. 1, will assess the care older adults receive in the hospital, operating room and emergency department.Hospitals will be required to r...
Leading the Way in Geriatric Emergency Care: The VA’s Patient-Centered Innovation
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is on a transformative journey leading the nation in geriatric emergency care, dedicated to providing patient-centered care initiated in VA Emergency Departments (ED). The catalyst for this journey was a compelling demographic trend, marked by a notably older adult patient population. Within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), 50% of patients seen in t...
The Gold Standard in Geriatric Emergency Department Care
In response to the growing number of older adults utilizing emergency department (ED) services, UC San Diego Health established the first Geriatric Emergency Department (GED) in California. This initiative, supported by a partnership with West Health, led to the creation of the Gary and Mary West Senior Emergency Care Unit (SECU), a dedicated space within the ED for geriatric care. The SECU has se...
Number of Accredited Geriatric Emergency Departments Surpasses 500, Elevating Care for Older Adults
In 2018, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) established the Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation Program in response to growing evidence that emergency departments needed to do more specifically for older adults and not take a one-size-fits-all approach to care.Six years later, more than 500 geriatric emergency departments (GED) have earned accreditation spreading across 2...
A Scarce Resource: Cleveland Clinic’s Innovative Geriatric ED Reduces Avoidable Admissions
Cleveland Clinic has implemented Geriatric Emergency Departments (GEDs) systemwide. GEDs address the unique and complex needs of older adult patients in emergency settings. Older adults often experience higher rates of admission and longer hospital stays due to vulnerabilities the current system is not designed to accommodate. Recognizing the challenges posed by high census and bed shortages, the ...
Northwell Health GED Case Study: Goals of Care, Throughput, Clinical Outcomes
Northwell Health, New York’s largest healthcare provider, has made it a strategic system goal to provide age-friendly care. Northwell Health has 18 emergency departments (EDs), one pediatric and 17 that treat more than 850,000 patients of all ages, 33% of them 65 and older. Northwell Health’s commitment to improving care for older adults led them on a journey toward system-wide geriatric emergency...