Institute For The Future

Physician Ponders ER of the Future

Emergency Physicians Monthly released an interesting paper today looking at how emergency rooms will need to remake care to accommodate the aging population. Focusing largely on staffing and infrastructure needs, emergency physician Bob Fitzgerald notes that a larger number of emergency patients will be older and states that "geriatric patients demand the one thing we are least able to give: TIME."

 

To address increasing demands on time, Fitzgerald suggests improving integration between inpatient and outpatient facilities, enhancing social worker support for geriatric care--so that dedicated support teams have time to work with and address patient needs--and making a number of structural changes to hospital rooms--such as placing mattresses for caregivers next to patient beds--to give family and caregivers a way to stay involved in caring for loved ones.

 

Stepping back from the specifics, Fitzgerald's point is an important one: Beyond technological shifts, medical professionals and caregivers will need to plan training and staffing initiatives well in advance to prepare for ongoing shifts in medicine.