Aging Baby Boomers Spur Critical Need for Specialists in Geriatric Emergency Care

Banner University Medical Center is the only accredited geriatric emergency department (ED) in Arizona, reports Cronkite News . "We know that older adults when they come into the ED, they have more complications," says Banner's Nimit Agarwal. "And there was a need for improving the care . . . when they come to the emergency department." The accreditation process, run by the American College of Emergency Physicians, was launched in November 2018 with the Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation Program. "One of our biggest initiatives in the emergency department is fall prevention in older adults," Agarwal notes. This requires an interdisciplinary strategy, using specialized nurses as well as a pharmacist who looks at subjects' medications, since polypharmacy is a problem in older adults. "We have the physicians who get training every month on what geriatrics focused care could be," Agarwal adds. Banner's geriatric ED includes six "age-friendly rooms" that feature hearing devices and magnifiers for people with hearing or vision impairments, for example.