Vulnerable Elder Protection Team: Initial experience of an emergency department-based interdisciplinary elder abuse program.

ABSTRACT:

Background

An emergency department (ED) visit provides a unique opportunity to identify elder abuse and initiate intervention, but emergency providers rarely do. To address this, we developed the Vulnerable Elder Protection Team (VEPT), an ED-based interdisciplinary consultation service. We describe our initial experience in the first two years after the program launch.

Methods

We launched VEPT in a large, urban, academic ED/hospital. From 4/3/17 to 4/2/19, we tracked VEPT activations, including patient characteristics, assessment, and interventions. We compared VEPT activations to frequency of elder abuse identification in the ED before VEPT launch. We examined outcomes for patients evaluated by VEPT, including change in living situation at discharge. We assessed ED provide

SUBMITTER: Rosen T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9669128 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature