Improving seniors' care in Emergency

It’s the busiest Emergency Department in the region. Over 80,000 people visited last year. But despite an increase in visitors, the Emergency Department team prevented an increase in wait times. Further still, they’ve continued to introduce new ideas to help improve patient care.

Last fiscal year, there was a concerted effort to improve emergency care for seniors. Here’s a glimpse of some of what was accomplished:

· Improved access to physicians with geriatric specialization.

· Introduced additional specially-trained Geriatric Emergency Nurse Education nurses, known as “GENE” nurses, increasing capacity at the front lines.

· Trained a Behavioural Emergency Response Team (BERT) to respond to calls to help prevent escalation of patient behaviours in the Emergency Department using specialized geriatric knowledge and techniques.

· Implemented new Identifying Seniors at Risk (ISAR) documentation and risk assessment practices, including improved screening for delirium.

As the Emergency Department continues to receive record numbers of visitors from the community, QCH staff remain committed to learning how to care even better for each and every person that walks through its doors.