UCSanDiego Health is the premier academic medical center in San Diego. They accept traditional Medicare, but don’t take a lot of Medicare Advantage plans because they hate the hassle and aggravation of dealing with them as much as the patients.
{{ But the place upended Ms. Tompkins’s expectations. Since 2022, this and every other adult E.R. in San Diego has been accredited as a geriatric emergency department, redesigned to address the specific risks and needs of older patients. It’s an approach, recent studies show, that can reduce hospital admissions and deaths among older adults and lower costs.
“They took me right to a room,” Ms. Tompkins said. She was transferred to a gurney with a thicker mattress to prevent bedsores and given blankets. “I got an I.V. right away because I needed fluids,” she said.
She was pleased that the small, curtained room, with sound-absorbing walls to lower the cacophony of emergency care, had a cushioned chair for her friend, who would stay with her, and a window looking out on trees.
The window served a medical purpose, too. Patients “can see whether it’s day or night,” said Denise Valenzuela, the geriatric emergency nurse assigned to Ms. Tompkins. “It prevents delirium,” the sudden change in mental status that can arise in hospitalized older patients and increase dementia risk. }}
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