Optimal Older Adult Emergency Care: Introducing Multidisciplinary Geriatric Emergency Department Guidelines from the American College of Emergency Physicians, American Geriatrics Society, Emergency Nurses Association, and Society for Academic Emergency Medicine

• Published in: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) Vol. 62; no. 7; pp. 1360 - 1363
• Main Authors: Carpenter, Christopher R., Bromley, Marilyn, Caterino, Jeffrey M., Chun, Audrey, Gerson, Lowell W., Greenspan, Jason, Hwang, Ula, John, David P., Lyons, William L., Platts-Mills, Timothy F., Mortensen, Betty, Ragsdale, Luna, Rosenberg, Mark, Wilber, Scott
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, NJ Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.07.2014; Wiley-Blackwell; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Aged; Biological and medical sciences; Emergency medical care; Emergency Medical Services - standards; emergency medicine; Emergency Service, Hospital; Emergency services; Emergency Treatment - standards; General aspects; Geriatrics; Geriatrics - standards; Guidelines; Health participants; Hospitals; Humans; Medical sciences; Miscellaneous; Patient Care Team - standards; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; quality improvement; United States; North America; America; United States > US; Human; American; Health staff; emergency medicine; Physician; Recommendation; Care; Association; Emergency department; Higher education; Learned society; quality improvement; guidelines; Emergency; Elderly; Multidisciplinary; Geriatrics; Nurse; geriatrics
• ISSN: 0002-8614; 1532-5415
• DOI: 10.1111/jgs.12883

In the United States and around the world, effective, efficient, and reliable strategies to provide emergency care to aging adults is challenging crowded emergency departments (EDs) and strained healthcare systems. In response, geriatric emergency medicine clinicians, educators, and researchers collaborated with the American College of Emergency Physicians, American Geriatrics Society, Emergency Nurses Association, and Society for Academic Emergency Medicine to develop guidelines intended to improve ED geriatric care by enhancing expertise, educational, and quality improvement expectations, equipment, policies, and protocols. These Geriatric Emergency Department Guidelines represent the first formal society‐led attempt to characterize the essential attributes of the geriatric ED and received formal approval from the boards of directors of each of the four societies in 2013 and 2014. This article is intended to introduce emergency medicine and geriatric healthcare providers to the guidelines while providing recommendations for continued refinement of these proposals through educational dissemination, formal effectiveness evaluations, cost‐effectiveness studies, and eventually institutional credentialing.