Older Adult Patients in the Emergency Department: Which Patients should be Selected for a Different Approach?

Abstract

Background: While multidimensional and interdisciplinary assessment of older adult patients improves their short-term outcomes after evaluation in the emergency department (ED), this assessment is time-consuming and ill-suited for the busy environment. Thus, identifying patients who will benefit from this strategy is challenging. Therefore, this study aimed to identify older adult patients suitable for a different ED approach as well as independent variables associated with poor short-term clinical outcomes. Methods: We included all patients >= 65 years attending 52 EDs in Spain over 7 days. Sociodemographic, comorbidity, and baseline functional status data were collected. The outcomes were 30 -day mortality, re -presentation, hospital readmission, and the composite of all outcomes. Results: During the study among 96,014 patients evaluated in the ED, we included 23,338 patients >= 65 years-mean age, 78.4 +/- 8.1 years; 12,626 (54.1%) women. During follow-up, 5,776 patients (24.75%) had poor outcomes after evaluation in the ED: 1,140 (4.88%) died, 4,640 (20.51) returned to the ED, and 1,739 (7.69%) were readmitted 30 days after discharge following the index visit. A model including male sex, age >= 75 years, arrival by ambulance, Charlson Comorbidity Index >= 3, and functional impairment had a C -index of 0.81 (95% confidence interval, 0.80-0.82) for 30 -day mortality. Conclusion: Male sex, age >= 75 years, arrival by ambulance, functional impairment, or severe comorbidity are features of patients who could benefit from approaches in the ED different from the common triage to improve the poor short-term outcomes of this population.