title: 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.
abstract: 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 a strained health care system. In response, geriatric emergency medicine (EM) clinicians, educators, and researchers collaborated with the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), American Geriatrics Society (AGS), Emergency Nurses Association (ENA), and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) 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 attribute of the geriatric ED and received formal approval from the boards of directors for each of the four societies in 2013 and 2014. This article is intended to introduce EM and geriatric health care providers to the guidelines, while providing proposals for educational dissemination, refinement via formal effectiveness evaluations and cost-effectiveness studies, and institutional credentialing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO.
authors.forename: Christopher R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Carpenter
authors.forename: Marilyn
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bromley
authors.forename: Jeffrey M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Caterino
authors.forename: Audrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chun
authors.forename: Lowell W
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Gerson
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Greenspan
authors.forename: Ula
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: John
authors.forename: William L
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Lyons
authors.forename: Timothy F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Platts-Mills
authors.forename: Betty
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mortensen
authors.forename: Luna
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ragsdale
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rosenberg
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wilber
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D005853:Geriatrics / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D014481:United States