Acute Care

Geriatric Emergency Care

Emergency departments are seeing an increase in visits made by older adults, and with the unique needs and vulnerabilities of a growing 65+ population, hospitals must prepare to respond. Geriatric emergency departments (GED) are transforming the way older adults receive emergency care.
Young woman nurse chatting with her elderly woman patient
A Model for Innovation
2016
Gary and Mary West Senior Emergency Care Unit established at UC San Diego Health
1st
San Diego County is first in the U.S. where all eligible hospitals have earned GED accreditation
460+
Accredited GEDs in the U.S., providing access to 23.9M older adults
1 in 4
Older adults are admitted to hospital after an emergency department visit
Objective

Ensure older adults receive emergency care tailored to their specific needs.

Current Goals

Increase the spread, scale, and sustainability of GEDs nationwide.

Drive training and educational opportunities for establishing GEDs in partnership with leaders in geriatric care.

Develop data demonstrating clinical and economic value of GEDs.

About the Initiative

What’s a Geriatric Emergency Department?

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Created by the American College of Emergency Physicians, the Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation (GEDA) ensures that older patients receive well-coordinated, quality care at the appropriate level at every emergency department encounter.

Emergency departments that earn a GEDA follow best practices across many categories of care, from interdisciplinary staffing and education to ensuring optimal transitions of care to the home or other settings, as well as enhancements of the physical environment and supplies.

Within a GED it’s not just about that fall that happened yesterday; it’s how we help you not fall in the future. We believe this will be a template for how you bring healthcare systems together and drive forward geriatric emergency care for the community.

Dr. Kevin Beise
Chair, ACEP’s Geriatric ED Accreditation Program
Board Member, West Health Policy Center

Hospitals that earn a GED accreditation are signaling to the public that they’re focused on the highest standards of care for their community’s older citizens.

West Health is leading efforts to spread, scale and sustain the GED movement through advocacy, collaborative research, data science, training, and development opportunities through collaborative partnerships.

23%
Inpatient admissions are from the emergency room for older adults
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Collaborators & Grantees

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They promote the highest quality of emergency care and is the leading advocate for emergency physicians, their patients, and the public.
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CAPC is a national organization dedicated to increasing the availability of quality care for people living with a serious illness.
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Geisinger Logo
Collaborating with Geisinger Health System to study treatment at home using Mobile Integrated Health & Community Paramedics.
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Supporting the more than 5,000 community-based programs across the country that are dedicated to addressing senior isolation and hunger.
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Advance medicine through unrivaled education, research, and outreach in the many diverse communities we serve.
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Serving Seniors Logo
Clearly demonstrate our core values and for us, it is all about changing and saving the lives of seniors struggling to meet their basic needs.
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John A. Hartford Foundation Logo
Research partnership to launch a Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative that will improve the quality of care that older adults receive.
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Collaborating to study care at home via an “Ambulatory Bundle,” meaning a home-based care program with an integrated “one-stop” referral approach.
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*Partial List