Crouse ER Recognized for High Care Standards for Older Adults

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) has awarded Crouse Health’s Pomeroy Emergency Services its Bronze Standard – Level 3 designation, which recognizes emergency departments in the U.S. that provide excellent care for older adults. The award is provided in partnership with the national Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation (GEDA) program.

Crouse’s Emergency Department accreditation signals to the public that the hospital is focused on the highest standards of care for the communities’ older adults.

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.

The voluntary GEDA program 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. The level of GEDA accreditation achieved depends upon how many of these best practices an emergency department is able to meet. A Level 3 emergency department must incorporate many of these best practices, along with providing inter-disciplinary geriatric education, and having geriatric appropriate equipment and supplies available.

Led by Medical Director David Mason, MD, Crouse’s Pomeroy Emergency Services is the newest ER facility in Central New York, providing care for some 70,000 patients annually.