Published Work by AGEM Members

 

AGEM Author Spotlight: Lauren Southerland, MD, Clinical Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Ohio State University

Geriatric screening in the emergency department increases consultations to geriatric medicine and physical and occupational therapy: A pre/post cohort study

We have many guidelines which recommend screening for geriatric syndromes in the emergency department, but we do not actually know if the screening results in different care from what physicians would do regularly.  We looked at whether increasing rates of geriatric screening led to increased consultations to teams to address geriatric patient issues (physical therapy, occupational therapy, and geriatrics consultants). We found that formal screening did increase consultation rates for discharged and ED observation patients.  It did not change practice for admitted patients.

 

Lauren Southerland is an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. She uses implementation science and clinical process improvement tools to improve the acute care of geriatric patients.