Researchers have discovered that hospital stays for people with dementias such as Alzheimer’s can be hazardous. It can be so dangerous, that an alarming percentage of emergency room patients die within one year of their hospital visits.
GEDI (Geriatric Emergency Department Innovations) is an Emergency Room program designed specifically for seniors. GEDI is able to deal with seniors’ special common needs, such as dementia and delirium. GEDI has cut senior hospitalizations by a whopping 33%! Watch GEDI in action:
Another great program is The Senior ER at Lutheran Medical Center, serving the biggest senior population in Colorado. Doctors in The Senior ER made changes to help their older patients avoid the delirium diagnosis, if they have no choice but to go the hospital.
Lutheran Medical Center essentially took its traditional 42,000-square-foot emergency room and cut it in half, leaving one side equipped as a traditional ER, and turning the other half into a “Senior ER.”Several other medical centers elsewhere around the country have done the same. See how the Lutheran Senior ER dramatically improves life for the elderly with dementia and other conditions:
One of the main reasons for these senior emergency room programs is a condition called “delirium”- a state of extra confusion and agitation brought on by the intensity of hospital stays, most especially the busy environment in hospital emergency rooms.
The problem of delirium is so severe for patients who already have a damaged brain, that both researchers and independent Alzheimer’s experts agree: caregivers need to know the risk, so they can help a loved one with dementia avoid the hospital altogether if possible.
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The post Senior-ER Improves Treatment for Elders appeared first on Alzheimer's And Dementia Weekly.
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