162 Establishing a geriatric friendly Emergency Department in Ireland with a checklist and gap analysis

Abstract

Abstract Background The population is ageing rapidly worldwide and in Ireland there has been a significant year on year increase of patients over sixty five presenting to the Emergency Department (ED). With the complexity of older patients, there is a focus on the creation of a department that caters to their needs. Methods A scoping literature review was performed to identify a checklist that could be utilised for establishing standards for a Geriatric Emergency Department. It was decided to use the ‘The Geriatric Emergency Department Guidelines’ written by the American College of Physicians et al1 as a model. This was then adapted to the Irish ED. Subsequently we applied this checklist to analyse the components that were in place within our own department. Results This study took place in a tertiary university hospital which sees over 50,000 patients per year. Within the ED there is a multi-disciplinary Geriatric Emergency Department Intervention Team (GEDI) in place and an Age Related Assessment Unit (ARAU) has recently been opened. Upon performing the gap analysis the majority of items on the checklist are in place with these resources. Those that are missing include certain members of the multidisciplinary team due to national issues with staffing and environmental constraints secondary to overcrowding within the ED. Despite these universal challenges, areas of improvement that are achievable in both the short and long term were identified. Conclusion An Emergency Department that caters to the older population is increasingly important. With the creation of a checklist and gap analysis demonstrating ease of use, essential components of care can be identified and readily implemented to create a department suitable for the older person.