Abstract Book of the 2nd Global Conference on Aging and Gerontology
Year: 2025
DOI:
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An Observational Study of Geriatrician Reviews in Elderly Patients Presenting with Falls to an Emergency Department (ED) of A Tertiary Hospital
Amrina Kaur, Alisha Spiteri
ABSTRACT:
To evaluate the impact of geriatrician reviews in ED amongst elderly patients presenting with falls in reducing ED 30-day readmission rates, length of stay (LOS) and disposition.A single-centre case control study included all patients above the age of 65 that presented with a fall during February to August 2022. A total of 1029 patients were identified, out of which 66 cases were seen by geriatricians and 139 controls were randomly selected. Retrospective data was collected from electronic medical records. Majority of patients seen by geriatricians were more multimorbid, frail and had polypharmacy with p-value<0.05. Although, there was no statistically significant difference amongst 30-day representation rates to ED, notably the control group had 13% of representations compared to 6% of cases. Patients seen by geriatricians also demonstrated a longer LOS (p-value 0.002). 85% of controls were referred to their primary care provider for follow up upon discharge, with only 6% being referred to hospital-led services, whereas 35% of cases were referred to hospital-led services. 9% and 18% of patients seen by geriatricians were also referred to ambulatory admission programmes. 47% of geriatrician cohort were referred to care coordinators compared to 18% in the control group (p-value of <0.001).This study demonstrated that positioning geriatricians at the hospital’s front door enabled early specialist assessment amongst our increasingly complex elderly population with falls. It also demonstrated timely disposition and utilization of more allied health and outpatient services, which improves patient outcomes and reduces burden on primary care providers.
keywords: elderly, emergency department, falls, geriatrician, outcomes