NEW HAVEN >> Senior citizens who are treated in the emergency department and sent home are at higher risk of disability and worsening health within the next six months, according to research published Friday by Yale physicians. It has already been shown that hospitalizations result in higher disability rates and decline in older patients, but this study focused on what happens after a senior is treated and discharged from the emergency department without being admitted, according to a Yale University press release. The study said medical and long-term care for newly disabled seniors costs $26 billion a year in the United States, according to the release. In a study lasting 14 years, information on 700 older adults was examined, comparing those who visited the emergency department and later suffered from disability or were admitted to the hospital with others who did not visit the emergency department. Nursing home admissions and deaths were taken into account, the release said. Those who were treated and released from hospital emergency departments had “significantly higher” rates of disability than the control group, the release said. They also were more likely to be admitted into a nursing home or to die, according to the release. “We know that if older persons go to the hospital and are admitted, they are at increased risk of disability and functional decline,” said first author Dr. Justine M. Nagurney, a resident in emergency medicine at Yale New Haven Hospital, in the release. “This study shows that patients discharged from the ED, meaning that they were deemed well enough to return home, are also at risk for functional decline. We should be doing something to address that.” Better assessments of functioning before discharge, by care transition coordinators and geriatric specialists, would help in reducing seniors’ risk, Nagurney said. More hospitals could hire advanced-practice nurses specializing in geriatrics to assess patients’ risk, the release said. “Patients may benefit from ED-based initiatives to evaluate and potentially intervene upon changes in disability status,” Nagurney said. The study is part of the Precipitating Events Project at Yale, a long-term study of older adults living in the community. The study was published Friday in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
Senior US citizens that are sent to the emergency room and returned home are at more risk of disability and worsened health within the subsequent six months, according to Yale research. Hospitalizations are already known to raise disability rates in older patients, but the 14 year study on 700 older adults examined the aftermath of being discharged from the emergency department. The study found that the current medical care for newly disabled seniors is $26bn in the US. The findings were that there were “significantly higher” rates of disability for those discharged than the control group, and that patients were more likely to enter a nursing home and die. The study concluded that improved assessments of function, the implementation of care transition coordinators and further geriatric specialists would help reduce risk.