Geriatric emergency medicine and the 2006 Institute of Medicine reports from the Committee on the Future of Emergency Care in the U.S. health system.

Geriatric emergency medicine and the 2006 Institute of Medicine reports from the Committee on the Future of Emergency Care in the U.S. health system.

Wilber Scott T; Gerson Lowell W; Terrell Kevin M; Carpenter Christopher R; Shah Manish N; Heard Kennon; Hwang Ula

Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine

2006

2006-12

Three recently published Institute of Medicine reports, Hospital-Based Emergency Care: At the Breaking Point, Emergency Medical Services: At the Crossroads, and Emergency Care for Children: Growing Pains, examined the current state of emergency care in the United States. They concluded that the emergency medicine system as a whole is overburdened, underfunded, and highly fragmented. These reports did not specifically discuss the effect the aging population has on emergency care now and in the future and did not discuss special needs of older patients. This report focuses on the emergency care of older patients, with the intent to provide information that will help shape discussions on this issue.

*National Academies of Science; *Population Dynamics; 80 and over; Aged; and Medicine (U.S.) Health and Medicine Division; Disaster Planning; Emergency Service; Engineering; Health Policy/*trends; Health Services for the Aged/*trends; Hospital/*trends; Humans; United States

Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

1345–1351

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