Elder Mistreatment Follow-Up: Connecting Emergency Departments and Communities

Abstract

To effectively address elder mistreatment (EM) in the emergency department (ED) hospitals must have mechanisms that promote and, to the extent possible, ensure patient safety post-discharge. However, the realities of working within busy hospitals--limited staff time, financial resources, and EM-specific expertise--prevent many EDs from being able to dedicate staff for patient follow up or develop EM multi-disciplinary teams. The fourth core element of the NCAEM’s ED Care Model aims to address this need with a roadmap for leveraging existing community resources. The roadmap provides streamlined tools to help hospitals assess their needs, identify existing teams and resources in their community, and connect with Adult Protective Services and other organizations. In this presentation we will present these tools and share case examples from beginning stages of feasibility testing in hospitals across the US. We will discuss specific strategies for implementing the model in hospitals of differing types, sizes, and resource levels.