AdventHealth Manchester Receives Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation

December 21, 2022 — The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), with support from The Gary and Mary West Health Institute and John A. Hartford Foundation, has launched the Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation (GEDA) program to recognize those emergency departments that provide excellent care for older adults. As such, we are excited to announce that AdventHealth Manchester Emergency Department has achieved the bronze standard — Level 3 GEDA accreditation.

Led by a remarkable team of inter-disciplinary leaders, including Kevin McLendon, DO, and Anita Gabbard, RN, TNCC; AdventHealth Manchester Emergency Department accreditation signals to the public that our institution is focused on the highest standards of care for our communities’ older adults.

“At AdventHealth Manchester (AHM), we care deeply about our geriatric patient population and work to ensure they receive high-quality, compassionate care, wherever they are. Through a myriad of programs such as our primary care practices, skilled nursing facility programs, home care program, home health, and initiatives such as healthy homes, our teams are passionate about caring for this valued patient population. That passion is also evident among our ED team members, and we are so proud of them for achieving this accreditation. The GEDA shows our ED’s commitment to provide our geriatric patients and their families with incredible care, tailored specifically to them.” said Anita Cornett, MD, CMO of AdventHealth Manchester.

Seniors who visit emergency departments accredited by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) can feel confident that they will receive high-quality care. Our facility has the necessary expertise, equipment, and team members to provide optimal care for our geriatric patients. This initiative is especially beneficial for seniors in rural areas, as it helps to ensure that they receive the best care possible in the event of an emergency. Furthermore, it facilitates the recovery process by helping seniors return to their daily lives after an emergency.

 Sissel Jacob, President/CEO of AdventHealth Manchester shared, “Due to multiple chronic medical conditions, we see that older adults visit emergency departments at a higher rate than the general population. Having an ED team and facility that are prepared to give quality, individualized care to this patient population is a tremendous blessing for our communities. Achieving the interdisciplinary criteria and goals required by the GEDA is a wonderful accomplishment and representation of this team’s ongoing commitment to provide excellent care to every patient, every time they enter our facility.”

The GEDA program is the culmination of years of progress in emergency care of older adults. In 2014, ACEP along with Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, Emergency Nurses Association, and American Geriatrics Society, developed and released geriatric ED guidelines, recommending measures ranging from adding geriatric-friendly equipment to specialized staff to more routine screening for delirium, dementia, and fall risk, among other vulnerabilities.

The voluntary GEDA program, which includes three levels similar to trauma center designations, provides specific criteria and goals for emergency clinicians and administrators to target. The accreditation process provides more than two dozen best practices for geriatric care and the level of GEDA accreditation achieved depends upon how many of these best practices an emergency department is able to meet. A Level 3 emergency department must incorporate many of these best practices, along with providing inter-disciplinary geriatric education, and having geriatric appropriate equipment and supplies available.