Improving the Care of Fall Injured Elders in U.S. Emergency Departments.
Geriatric fall-related injuries have become a huge, ever-growing, costly and fatal
public health crisis in America.
Geriatric fall-related injuries have become a fatal public health crisis in America
which has affected the population at an ever-growing rate.
America’s Emergency Departments (EDs) are the heart of the problem and the solution
towards preventing geriatric falls.
The purpose of the study reported here is to address the concerns associated with the quality of care that
American EDs provide to their fall-injured geriatric patients.
Most of the physicians participating the survey perceived that none of these diagnostic
observations like balance, gait, vision, hearing, physical therapy needs, clinical depression,
fear of falling, etc., are routinely provided to fall-injured elders in their ED.
Sixty-three percent of the physicians perceive that these fall injured patients routinely
leave the ED without a documented appointment with a medical
provider for follow-up diagnosis or evaluation.
Sixty-two percent of the physicians associated with the survey believe that fall injured
patients return to the same ED almost 26-59% of the time. Sixty-six percent
of the respondents would recommend that they and their colleagues take
an 8-hour online course in geriatric fall prevention.
Fifty-seven percent of our respondents were likely to refer high fall risk ED geriatric patients to
a nearby Centre of Excellence in Geriatric Fall Prevention and Treatment.
In the 2015 study, physicians were asked to estimate
the percentage of cases in which balance and gait disorders and
PT/remediable leg weaknesses were reported among the fall injured patients in the ED
Emerg Med Open J. 2017; 3(2): 20-26. doi: 10.17140/EMOJ-3-135
