IMPORTANCE There has been a significant increase in the implementation and dissemination of geriatric emergency department (GED) programs. Understanding the costs associated with patient care would yield insight into the direct financial value for patients, hospitals, health systems, and payers. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association of GED programs with Medicare costs per beneficiary.

Pain is highly prevalent in healthcare settings, however disparities continue to exist in pain care treatment. Few studies have investigated if differences exist based on patient related characteristics associated with aging. The objective of this study was to determine if there are differences in acute pain care for older versus younger patients. This was a multicenter, retrospective, cross-sectional observation study of 5 emergency departments across the US evaluating the 2 most commonly presenting pain conditions for older adults - abdominal and fracture pain. Multivariable adjusted hierarchical modeling was completed. A total of 6,948 visits were reviewed. Older (≥65 years) and oldest (≥85 years) were less likely to receive analgesics when compared to younger patients (<65 years), yet older patients had greater reductions in final pain scores. When evaluating pain treatment and final pain scores, differences appeared to be based on type of pain. Older abdominal pain patients were less likely to receive pain medications, while older fracture patients were more likely to receive analgesics and opioids when compared to younger patients. Differences in pain care for older patients appear to be driven by type of presenting pain.

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Background Previous studies examining gender-based disparities in Emergency Department (ED) pain-care have been limited to a single pain-condition, a single study-site, and lack rigorous control for confounders. Objective A multicenter evaluation of the effect of gender on abdominal pain (AP) and fracture (FP) pain-care outcomes. Research Design Retrospective cohort-review of ED visits at 5 US hospitals in January, April, July and October 2009. Subjects 6,931 patients with a final ED diagnosis of FP (n=1682) or AP (n=5249). Measures The primary-predictor was gender. The primary outcome was time to analgesic-administration. Secondary outcomes included time to medication-order, and the likelihood the receiving an analgesic and change in pain scores 360 minutes after triage: Multivariable models, clustered by study site, were conducted to adjust for race, age, comorbidities, initial pain-score, ED crowding and triage acuity. Results On adjusted analyses, compared with men, women with AP waited longer for analgesic administration [AP Women: 112 (65–187) min, Men: 96 (52–167) min, p<0.001] and ordering Women: [84 (41–160) min, Men: 71 (32–137) min, p<0.001], whereas women with FP did not (Administration: p=0.360; Order: p=0.133). Compared with men, women with AP were less likely to receive analgesics in the first 90 minutes (OR: 0.766, 95% CI: 0.670 – 0.875, p<0.001), whereas women with FP were not (p=0.357). Discussion In this multicenter study, we found that women experienced delays in analgesic administration for AP, but not for FP. Future research and interventions to decrease gender-disparities in pain-care should take type of pain into account.

PREPARE has the potential to engage older adults who are not acutely ill in ACP during their ED visits. Further studies should explore optimal approaches for ED implementation.