What you can do for an older relative you take to an emergency room

Here’s a link to an interesting article on NextAvenue.com (see link below) about the debate over whether Senior-focused Emergency Rooms are a good thing and necessary. Or whether MD’s and nurses just need a lot more training in geriatric care.

“Nationally, there are probably fewer than two dozen senior emergency rooms, says Sue Penoza, director of strategic planning at Trinity Health of Novi, Mich., one of the largest Catholic hospital systems in the United States.

All take older patients, generally anyone 65 and older, who aren’t experiencing potentially life-threatening traumas, like heart attacks or strokes, based on findings from an initial evaluaton in the regular ER. Common conditions seen by the medical staff in these special emergency rooms include falls, hip fractures, generalized weakness, abdominal pain and non-urgent chest pain.

The impetus is a growing understanding that older adults have unique medical needs and vulnerabilities that often aren’t very well served in traditional emergency rooms.”

Whether the Senior ER phenomenon will be a growing trend is unknown. In the meantime, this article describes some simple and important ways that family members can advocate for their loved ones in the ER’s to help make sure they receive better care.

What you can do for an older relative you take to an emergency room: 

Make sure you bring your relative’s glasses or hearing aids to the hospital. Once the medical staff in the general ER rule out a life-threatening medical problem, ask if there is someone trained to work with older adults, or if the hospital has a senior ER. Ask nurses and doctors attending to the person what the plan of care is. Ask the medical staff if your relative can have food and water and make sure this happens, if appropriate. Speak up if the person’s needs aren’t being met. Be alert to signs of sudden confusion or disorientation that arise in the ER — these can signal the potential onset of delirium — and let medical staff know if this occurs.