• Listen Live NOW!
  • On Demand
  • Ways to Listen
  • All Shows
    • Radio Shows
      • 1st Talk Compliance
      • FINN Voices
      • Harlow on Healthcare
      • Healthcare De Jure
      • Healthcare IT Today
      • Healthcare Upside/Down
      • Health UnaBASHEd
      • Payment Matters
      • PopHealth Week
      • The Incrementalist
      • The Scope with Dr. K
      • The Tate Chronicles
      • The Virtual Shift
      • This Just In Radio Show
      • Trending NOW
      • Value-Based Care Insights
    • Podcast Shows
      • 4sight Health Roundup
      • Ambulatory Healthcare Today
      • AMCP Podcast Series – Listen Up
      • Ask the Educator
      • Beyond the Needle
      • Conversations on Health Care
      • Healthcare Changemakers
      • Healthcare Rap
      • Healthcare Mixtape
      • HealthLaw HotSpot
      • Hello Healthcare Podcast
      • The Brain Trust
      • The Digital Patient
      • The Handoff
    • Monthly Podcast Shows
      • Follow the (Medical) Record
      • How I Transformed This
      • Life-Centered Health Care
      • Paving the Path
      • Tell Me Where IT Hurts
      • The Dish on Health IT
      • The Healthusiasm Podcast
      • Trauma-Informed Life
      • Voices of Change
      • Voices of Self Funding
      • What Consumers Want
      • What’s My Tagline
  • Playlists
  • NursesNOW
    • Nursing News
      • Organizations
      • Podcasts
  • Request Media Kit
  • Contact Us
Event Calendar
HealthcareNOWradio.comHealthcareNOWradio.com
  • Listen Live NOW!
  • On Demand
  • Ways to Listen
  • All Shows
    • Radio Shows
      • 1st Talk Compliance
      • FINN Voices
      • Harlow on Healthcare
      • Healthcare De Jure
      • Healthcare IT Today
      • Healthcare Upside/Down
      • Health UnaBASHEd
      • Payment Matters
      • PopHealth Week
      • The Incrementalist
      • The Scope with Dr. K
      • The Tate Chronicles
      • The Virtual Shift
      • This Just In Radio Show
      • Trending NOW
      • Value-Based Care Insights
    • Podcast Shows
      • 4sight Health Roundup
      • Ambulatory Healthcare Today
      • AMCP Podcast Series – Listen Up
      • Ask the Educator
      • Beyond the Needle
      • Conversations on Health Care
      • Healthcare Changemakers
      • Healthcare Rap
      • Healthcare Mixtape
      • HealthLaw HotSpot
      • Hello Healthcare Podcast
      • The Brain Trust
      • The Digital Patient
      • The Handoff
    • Monthly Podcast Shows
      • Follow the (Medical) Record
      • How I Transformed This
      • Life-Centered Health Care
      • Paving the Path
      • Tell Me Where IT Hurts
      • The Dish on Health IT
      • The Healthusiasm Podcast
      • Trauma-Informed Life
      • Voices of Change
      • Voices of Self Funding
      • What Consumers Want
      • What’s My Tagline
  • Playlists
  • NursesNOW
    • Nursing News
      • Organizations
      • Podcasts
  • Request Media Kit
  • Contact Us

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, West Health Partner to Create Nation’s First Rural Geriatric Emergency Department

Nov 13, 2019 | Posted by Industry News | Healthcare, HIT Feed, News |

As the U.S. population ages, older adults are turning to emergency departments (EDs) for their health care needs. In response, EDs must be equipped not only to deal with acute medical emergencies, but also to coordinate care, avoid admissions when possible, provide patients with support, and connect them to community partners through an ED environment designed with the needs of seniors in mind.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health (D-HH) (@DartmouthHitch) will partner with West Health (@WestHealth)—a family of nonprofit and nonpartisan organizations dedicated to lowering health care costs to enable seniors to successfully age in place—in a $4.5 million research collaboration to create an innovative “Geriatric Emergency Department” (GED). The GED is designed with protocols, resources, and specialized care areas to optimize the acute care of older adults. While most hospitals implementing GEDs have been urban or larger academic medical centers, the D-HH/West Health collaboration will be the first in the nation to focus on a largely rural population.

“Improving the delivery of care in rural areas is one of the strategic imperatives for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, as we grow to meet the needs of patients around the region,” said D-HH CEO and President Joanne M. Conroy, MD. “With our strong programs and passionate providers in Emergency Medicine and Geriatrics, along with our dynamic Connected Care Center, we are uniquely qualified for the development of a rural telehealth model of geriatric emergency care that this collaboration will enable.”

“This is the perfect union,” says Shelley Lyford, president and chief executive officer of West Health. “Combining West Health’s experience in geriatric care with Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s pioneering work in telehealth and geriatrics will enable D-H to add geriatric emergency telecare to its already world-class telehealth portfolio. And seniors will be the beneficiaries of this important work.”

Over the course of the three-year research collaboration, the West Health Institute will contribute expertise and $3 million in capital to establish Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon (DHMC) as a center for geriatric emergency care. The collaboration will develop and implement protocols, resources, and specialized care areas within the Emergency Department at DHMC, all to optimize the acute care of older adults.

After DHMC earns accreditation from the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) as a top-tier, Level 1 GED, its specialized services will be offered with DHMC as the “hub” to four “spoke” sites around the region through D-HH’s Center for Telehealth. D-HH has committed an additional $1.5 million to the overall project cost.

“Seniors who seek treatment in EDs are often highly complex patients with various medical and social issues that are challenging for any ED, and can be especially challenging for rural hospitals with fewer resources,” says Scott Rodi, MD, interim section chief and regional director of emergency medicine at DHMC. “This partnership with West Health will enable us to work with our rural colleagues to provide specialized, senior-specific care to more patients throughout the region. It’s another step forward in our vision to improve access to high-quality health care for all people, regardless of where they live.”

The largely rural setting of Northern New England offers unique obstacles to implementing improved acute care for the growing population of senior adults. Northern New England is one of the United States’ most rapidly aging regions, with Vermont and New Hampshire being the second- and third-oldest states, respectively, by median age. Older adults who live in poverty are significantly more likely to live in rural areas. Limited access to health services, workforce shortages, social isolation, and transportation problems are particularly severe in these remote regions. Caring for older adults in rural areas such as Northern New England requires innovation in geriatric emergency medicine.

Ultimately, this collaboration will evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of using telemedicine to extend the reach of a GED to rural hospitals, and create opportunities to scale the concept to other rural facilities across Northern New England and throughout the country.

About Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health (D-H Health) is a non-profit academic health system primarily serving New Hampshire and Vermont as well as patients from across New England. As the largest health care system and employer in New Hampshire, D-H Health is an integrated health care delivery network of providers and member organizations with the same commitment to provide the highest quality of care to the nearly 2 million community members we serve throughout the region.

Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
Linkedin
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on pinterest
Pinterest
Share on reddit
Reddit
Share on email
Email
Share this...
Tags: Dartmouth-Hitchcock HealthGeriatric Emergency Departmentrural healthcareWest Health

Radio for the Healthcare Industry

No HTML5 audio playback capabilities for this browser. Use Chrome Browser!

Categories

Follow Us on Twitter

My Tweets

About HealthcareNOWRadio.com

HealthcareNOWradio.com is an Internet radio station operated and produced as part of Answers Media Network. The station offers interviews, and commentary from industry leaders in healthcare and health information technology, as well as originally produced programming hosted by industry leaders. Listen on any device 24/7. You can also subscribe to get notification when a new show airs.

Sign Up for Our e-News Digest

Get notified when a new show airs or when your favorites are available as podcasts. Sign up here.

Our News Media Site

Connect with Us

Contact Us

Contact a Host

Media Kit

Listening Guide

 

Follow Us

Our Radio Hosts on Twitter

Tweets by @HCNowRadio

©2023 Answers Media Company, LLC

  • HealthcareNOW Radio Media Kit
  • Contact Us
  • Our Privacy Policy
  • Our Guests and Recording Policy
Prev Next