News release from the Lutheran Health Network:
Dupont first in Indiana to achieve Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation
One of just 14 hospitals nationwide to have American College of Emergency Physicians designation
(August 15, 2018) – Dupont Hospital is home to the first ER in Indiana accredited by the American College of Emergency Physicians as a Geriatric Emergency Department for its focus on caring for senior patients.
The American College of Emergency Physicians, with support from The Gary and Mary West Health Institute and John A. Hartford Foundation, launched the Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation program earlier this year to recognize those emergency departments that provide excellent care for older adults. Dupont Hospital’s emergency department has achieved the bronze standard – Level 3 Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation. According to ACEP, Dupont has one of only 14 emergency departments in the country to earn a Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation of any level.
“Dupont Hospital’s accreditation signals to the public that the hospital is focused on the highest standards of care for its community’s older adults,” said Paul Kivela, MD, MBA, FACEP, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians. “The hospital is led by a remarkable team of interdisciplinary leaders, and we are enthusiastic about the possibility of helping them further enhance its geriatric expertise now and in the future.”
The GEDA program is the culmination of years of progress in emergency care of older adults. In 2014, ACEP along with Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, Emergency Nurses Association, and American Geriatrics Society, developed and released geriatric ED guidelines, recommending measures ranging from adding geriatric-friendly equipment to specialized staff to more routine screening for delirium, dementia, and fall risk, among other vulnerabilities.
“Aging should not be regarded as an affliction – it is a stage in life, like all others, that deserves to be celebrated and documented in all its natural grace and beauty,” said Lorenzo Suter, chief executive officer, Dupont Hospital. “Our hospital is best known for birthing, but we continue to focus in on how Dupont can allow our seniors to adapt to healthy lifestyles to assure an inexorable transition.”
The voluntary GEDA program, which includes three levels similar to trauma center designations, provides specific criteria and goals for emergency clinicians and administrators to target. The accreditation process provides more than two dozen best practices for geriatric care and the level of GEDA achieved depends upon how many of these best practices an emergency department is able to meet. A Level 3 emergency department must incorporate a few of these best practices, along with providing interdisciplinary geriatric education, and having geriatric appropriate equipment and supplies available.
Dupont’s emergency department accreditation is just the latest in a series of benchmarks the hospital has met in its pursuit of enhanced care for seniors. In 2016, Dupont Hospital achieved “Senior Friendly” status for its NICHE program. NICHE, which stands for Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders, is a national designation that validates a hospital’s house-wide commitment to excellence in the care of patients age 65 and older. Dupont earned its NICHE designation in 2014.
1 – American College of Emergency Physicians, The American Geriatrics Society, Emergency Nurses Association, and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. Geriatric Emergency Department Guidelines, 2013. Available at: https://www.acep.org/geriEDguidelines/#sm.011c0br717chdgj10i01r06rvh3ye. Accessed February 27, 2018.
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