Poster Presentation

Friday, July 13, 2007
9:30 AM - 10:15 AM

Friday, July 13, 2007
3:15 PM - 4:00 PM
This presentation is part of : Poster Presentation III
Analysis of Taipei-Veterans General Hospital Emergency Department (ED) Utilization by Elderly Veterans Living in a Veterans Home
Yuann-Meei Tzeng, MS1, David Hung-Tsang Yen, PhD2, and Shiu-Wei Liu, MS1. (1) Department of Nursing, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, (2) Emergency Department, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
Learning Objective #1: The learner will be able to describe the relationship between geriatric syndrome (GS: confusion, falls, incontinence, or immobility) and non-geriatric syndrome (NGS).
Learning Objective #2: The learner will be able to provide perspective designation of establishment of emergency care system, adjustment of medical resource and hospital admission for geriatric patients.

Background: We are going to face the rapidly increasing elderly people in Taiwan, from 7% in 1993 to 14% in 2019. The geriatric population increases the demand of medical care for these patients. Emergency care medicine for the geriatrics begins from emergency department (ED) and one of the most important missions in our hospital is to take good care of all veterans.
Methods: We collect clinical data, from Jan. 1, 2006 to Sep. 30, 2006. A chart review and demographic information was obtained from the hospital’s computer database study of 452 ED geriatric patients (> 65 y) at Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan. And the needs of ED medical resources of single male elderly veterans living in a primary care unit (Ban-Chiau Veterans home). 
We compared these groups with geriatric syndrome (GS: confusion, falls, incontinence, or immobility) and non-geriatric syndrome (NGS).
Results: There were 118(26.1%) with GS and 334(73.9 %)with NGS. The mean age of all patient was 81.5±5.8 years. There were 410(91%) with Medical and 42(9%) with injury-related. The significant relationship between GS and NGS with triage category, conditions (Medical and injury-related), radiography (p<0.01), Lab. Investigations (p=0.01) prescription medications (p=0.01). Hospital admission, Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, Clinical Toxicology, Orthopedic, Surgery, Traumatology, Neurology, Neuro-surgery, Gastroenterology, Cardiology and Endocrinology were affected by group classification.
Conclusions: The fully understanding of demographic data and geriatric syndrome of geriatrics with acute illness is mandatory for the development of a care system for acute geriatric patients. We can provide perspective designation of establishment of emergency care system, adjustment of medical resource and hospital admission for tremendous increasing of acute illness of geriatric patients in medical center in the future. The ultimate goal of emergency geriatric care medicine is to provide persistently delicate medical care for geriatric people.