170 Emergency Department Chief Complaints Among Older Adults With and Without Alzheimer’s Disease or Related Dementias in Years Before and After Diagnosis

Abstract

program was 4.59, falling between satisfied (4) and very satisfied (5). The average rating of satisfaction with information provided about the program was 4.6, with the average rating of the explanation of the patient's evaluation results being 4.5. The average rating of instructions of follow up care was 4.5. When patients were asked if they recommend the program should continue, 87% responded. Of those respondents, 99.5% stated yes it should continue.Conclusion: In this qualitative study, older adults who undergo assessment by the Geriatric Assessment Team are appreciative of the specialized care, and recognize that our program is needed. They recommend that the geriatric emergency medicine program continue. Understanding patient experience is vital to improve the quality of care that an ED provides. As more older adults utilize the healthcare system, this becomes more necessary.

Emergency department utilization and presenting chief complaints by Veterans living with dementia

“…When examining chief complaint data using a novel NLP derived national data set, we found that Veterans with dementia had largely similar chief complaints compared to their nondementia counterparts, but with slightly higher rates of ED visits for chief complaints associated with certain geriatric syndromes like falls and certain nonspecific complaints like weakness and altered mental state. These findings are congruent with a prior study conducted in a smaller population of Medicare beneficiaries in two health systems comparing ED visits before and after a diagnosis of dementia 16 . While there is no standardized definition of nonspecific complaints, they are generally considered to be presentations that do not suggest an ED evaluation based on any particular organ system or infectious etiology—essentially, they are defined by the lack of a specific complaint 34 .…”

“…These findings are congruent with a prior study conducted in a smaller population of Medicare beneficiaries in two health systems comparing ED visits before and after a diagnosis of dementia. 16 While there is no standardized definition of nonspecific complaints, they are generally considered to be presentations that do not suggest an ED evaluation based on any particular organ system or infectious etiologyessentially, they are defined by the lack of a specific complaint. 34 We note that for other nonspecific complaints such as dizziness or pain, rates among the two groups appear similar or have even higher rates in the nondementia cohort.…”

“…15 There has been little prior work investigating ED chief complaints for PLWDs with large-scale studies. 16 More often, reasons for ED visits among PLWDs have been compared to patients without dementia in large quantitative studies based on encounter diagnosis 4,17 or have been investigated with smaller qualitative interview studies of PLWDs and caregivers. 18,19 There are no known national studies of standardized ED chief complaints among PLWDs.…”