ECMC Awarded American College of Emergency Physicians Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation – ECMC Achieved Level 3 GEDA Accreditation
BUFFALO, NEW YORK— Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) Corporation announced that the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) has informed ECMC that its Emergency Department has achieved the bronze standard — Level 3 Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation (GEDA) accreditation. In its accreditation correspondence, ACEP stated that “…Erie County Medical Center’s accreditation signals to the public that your institution is focused on the highest standards of care for your communities’ older adults.”
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 interdisciplinary geriatric education, and have geriatric appropriate equipment and supplies available.
ECMCC President and CEO Thomas J. Quatroche Jr., Ph.D., said, “This accreditation from ACEP reinforces the high quality care and clinical excellence that ECMC is known for, particularly in our Emergency Department. It further highlights our caregivers’ commitment to ensuring that all patients, notably older adults, receive the very best healthcare services they need.”
The GEDA program is the culmination of years of progress in emergency care of older adults. In 2014, ACEP along with the 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.
ABOUT THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF EMERGENCY PHYSICIANS: The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is the national medical society representing emergency medicine. Through continuing education, research, public education, and advocacy, ACEP advances emergency care on behalf of its 40,000 emergency physician members, and the more than 150 million people they treat on an annual basis. For more information, visit www.acep.org and www.emergencyphysicians.org.
ABOUT ERIE COUNTY MEDICAL CENTER (ECMC) CORPORATION: The ECMC Corporation was established as a New York State Public Benefit Corporation and since 2004 has included an advanced academic medical center with 573 inpatient beds, on- and off-campus health centers, more than 30 outpatient specialty care services and Terrace View, a 390-bed long-term care facility. ECMC is Western New York’s only Level 1 Adult Trauma Center, as well as a regional center for burn care, behavioral health services, transplantation, medical oncology and head & neck cancer care, rehabilitation and a major teaching facility for the University at Buffalo. Most ECMC physicians, dentists and pharmacists are dedicated faculty members of the university and/or members of a private practice plan. More Western New York residents are choosing ECMC for exceptional patient care and patient experiences—the difference between healthcare and true care™.