Geriatric Emergency Department Care
Elder-Friendly Emergency Services
Emergency departments (EDs) are making efforts to improve the care and services they provide for their older patients. Our project addressed the need for valid tools to assess care processes and outcomes: 1) a self-assessment tool comprising a set of measurable, consensus-based markers of geriatric ED care; and 2) measures of patient experiences of their ED visit. Our project was carried out in Quebec in collaboration with a cross-provincial panel of experts in elder-friendly ED care; it was funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ-S). The tools we developed are freely available to interested users, in English and French. We ask only that users attribute our work correctly by referring to the appropriate publications, and inform us of their results (research.st.mary [at] ssss.gouv.qc.ca).
Elder-friendly ED Self-Assessment Tool
We proposed a preliminary Elder-Friendly ED Self-Assessment tool using data from a 2006 survey of Quebec EDs (McCusker et al, 2012). In 2013-14 we conducted a second survey, from which we developed and validated an expanded Self-Assessment tool. Thirteen subscales are proposed for evaluation in various ED settings (McCusker et al, 2018).
Patient Experiences Measures
We interviewed 412 patients age 75 and over, or their family members, during the week after they returned home from an ED visit, asking about experiences in 6 care domains: interpersonal care, communication, wait times, family needs, physical needs, and transitional care. Two scales were developed and validated, to measure 1) personal care and communication, and 2) waiting times (McCusker et al, 2018). These scales, suitable for completion by patients or family members, assess important aspects of ED care experienced by older adults and are ready for further evaluation in other settings.
