Researchers have discovered that hospital stays for people with dementias such as Alzheimer’s can be hazardous. It can be so dangerous, that an alarming percentage of emergency room patients die within one year of their hospital visits.
GEDI (Geriatric Emergency Department Innovations) is an Emergency Room program designed specifically for seniors. GEDI is able to deal with seniors’ special common needs, such as dementia and delirium. GEDI has cut senior hospitalizations by a whopping 33%! Watch GEDI in action:
Another great program is The Senior ER at Lutheran Medical Center, serving the biggest senior population in Colorado. Doctors in The Senior ER made changes to help their older patients avoid the delirium diagnosis, if they have no choice but to go the hospital.
Several other medical centers elsewhere around the country have done the same. See how the Lutheran Senior ER dramatically improves life for the elderly with dementia and other conditions:
One of the main reasons for these senior emergency room programs is a condition called “delirium”- a state of extra confusion and agitation brought on by the intensity of hospital stays, most especially the busy environment in hospital emergency rooms.
The problem of delirium is so severe for patients who already have a damaged brain, that both researchers and independent Alzheimer’s experts agree: caregivers need to know the risk, so they can help a loved one with dementia avoid the hospital altogether if possible.
SOURCES:
Mom was sent to the ER every time she fell while living in a (five star) dementia care unit. They repeatedly allowed her to walk until she fell from exhaustion, even while wearing a helmet. She was afraid of the ambulance and ER – and would try to climb out of the bed before I could get there. Then, the ER doctors would FUSS at me, when the facility would send her to the ER. One doctor actually told me that the facility was wasting their time – sending the 'potentially' injured seniors to the ER. I hope something is done to help dementia victims with their fear. Very sad to see them scared while being treated by unsympathetic 'doctors'.
It's horrifying what is going on. I was repeatedly gaslighted by one cunning ER Nurse who just did not want to deal with an amazing senior who was like a rock star in her community because I was there every step of the way. Mom was still walking up to 1.1 miles with me by her side. Her bones went from osteoporosis to osteopenia. She was singing songs from her childhood, loved pets, kids and her beanie babies. Was such an inspiration to be around. But all it took was one ER Nurse to violate up to 15 laws to end Mom's life prematurely.
I took care of my Mother who had Dementia for 7 years. I kept her out of an overnight hospital for 3 and 3/4 years because I was her full time caregiver. Then a West Hills CA ER Nurse helped end her life, just because the ER Nurse could not be bothered to document Mom's decline due to pre pneumonia that happened while she was on her ER bed. I had to discover on my own that the ER Nurse probably broke as many as 15 laws. In California, they don't investigate because they need those premature deaths so they have more funding for the newly arriving. The irony is, my Mother was once an immigrant, when an Immigrant is young the Democrats will do anything for them, when the Immigrant is old, they seem to lose interest and don't enforce laws or investigations.
The same facility that helped end my Mother's life prematurely, the Hospital portion was terrific over the years. I stayed by my mother's bedside through a 3 year period of several close calls with death. I reoriented her and kept her calm during her tough time. Then we had 3 and 3/4 years of no overnight Hospital stays and our relationship got stronger. There was no straight line decline. The happier I could make her, the more she seemed to thrive even as some things declined, other things either maintained or improved.
I hope this program will soon come to New Mexico.