Under the leadership of the Chief Medical Deputy Superintendent Hung-Jung Lin and ED Chief Chien-Chin Hsu, the Chi Mei Emergency Department began deploying the "Geriatric Emergency Department" in 2012 in response to the significant impact that the super-aged society will have on our medical system. Initially, ED attending physicians, Director Drs. Chien-Cheng Huang, Tian-Hoe Tan, Yuan Kao, and Min-Xian Zhong received specialized training in geriatrics, and were later boarded as geriatric specialists.
In January 2016, Chi Mei Hospital established the "Chi Mei Geriatric Emergency Team" under the instruction of Superintendent Chung-Ching Chio. This interdisciplinary team combines the various fields of emergency medicine, nursing, geriatrics, holistic medicine, palliative medicine, social services, nutrition, rehabilitation, pharmacy and psychiatry. Members include physicians, case managers, nurses, specialist nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, nutritionists, social workers and volunteers. Among the physicians, 5 are emergency boarded, 6 have geriatrics specialization, 1 has hospice specialization, 1 has geriatric psychiatry specialization, and 2 have dual hospice and palliative qualifications. All members of this team have received geriatric medical training and hold a regular monthly meeting. The monthly "geriatric emergency team meeting" consists of: (1) discussion of the development goals of the geriatric emergency team; (2) formulation of standard operations processes; (3) coordination of interdisciplinary team issues; (4) participation in various quality improvement competitions; (5) paper discussions to enhance new medical knowledge and build team consensus. The team also established a mobile LINE group as an interdisciplinary cooperation platform to communicate and deliver information related to emergency care for senior citizens in real time. The team is supervised by Chief Medical Deputy Superintendent Hung-Jung Lin and the elderly are invited to participate in these quality improvement meetings. Because of the outstanding results of the geriatric emergency team, our hospital further established the nation's first and only "geriatric emergency department" in 2019, with Dr. Chien-Cheng Huang as the head of the department, becoming a leader in promoting hospitable emergency services for senior citizens in Taiwan.
Because elderly patients frequently have intertwined chronic, multiple medical and socioeconomic problems, it is necessary to have a holistic approach to patient assessment and continuity of care. Therefore, in addition to interdisciplinary "horizontal integration" between the emergency department, nursing, social services and the such, our hospital also actively cooperates with the wards (including geriatrics, holistic medicine, and general internal medicine) for "vertical integration", so that geriatric emergency patients can be adequately treated after the emergency department. Therefore, regardless of admission to hospital, outpatient or home medical care, there is seamless continuity of care.
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| Monthly meeting of the geriatric emergency team | Chi Mei Geriatric Emergency Team LINE Group |
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| Elderly patients participating in our quality improvement meetings | Interdisciplinary ward meeting |