As Our Parents Age So Do We

If you have taken aging parents for a noisy, confusing, not to mention long, emergency visit, you will want  to keep well-informed about hospitals that are developing facilities expressly tailored to seniors.

Don't forget to watch the video below.

Yesterday, March 14, 2011, The New York Times New Old Age Blog posted an article, Emergency Rooms Built With the Elderly in Mind. Written by reporters Alyson Martin and Nushin Rashidian, the piece describes the senior emergency experience of a patient in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital. The authors also write about the nationwide trend to develop E.R.’s for seniors.

As Our Parents Age has published four posts, one more than 18 months ago, about senior emergency department facilities and the senior experience in hospital emergency rooms. One of them mentions the developments at St. Joseph’s Mercy Health Systems (read the press release describing a new ER for seniors). Previous posts include:

• More Senior Emergency Departments are Opening
• Aging Parents, Hospitals, and Noise
• Aging Parents: Emergency Department Texting
• Going to the Emergency Room

Naturally the New York Times article quotes Dr. Bill Thomas, who is a mover and shaker in all things geriatric. Read the whole piece at the Times, but here is what Dr. Thomas said:

When you talk about marketing hospitals, there’s a saying that kind of everybody knows, which is, ‘The emergency room is your hospital’s front door,’… Among the most vocal users of that front door, and the people who sometimes have the strongest opinions of that front door, are elders.

Also, read this November 2010 post by Dr. Thomas, Senior ER Trend Building Momentum, from his ChangingAging blog and view the video below about the first senior specific emergency department center at Holy Cross Hospital.