Background: Overall, there is only little data in health care research on the subject of emergency care in older patients in Germany. The aim of the present study is to assess the older emergency patient in regard to the core data set "Emergency Department" of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI).
Materials and methods: Monocentric, retrospective observational study.
Results: In the observation period, a total of 29,391 emergency patients were treated at the interdisciplinary emergency center. Of these, 8072 emergency patients were ≥65 years old (27.4%). With increasing age, paramedic ambulances (RTW) or physician-led ambulances (NEF) are increasingly used (p < 0.001). Older emergency patients arriving by a physician-led emergency service show a 38.9-fold increase in mortality compared to ambulatory patients (odds ratio = 38.98 [29.22-51.87]). The initial assessment, using the Manchester Triage System (MTS), shows a steady rise towards higher urgency levels with increasing age (p < 0.001). In the multivariate analysis within the individual age clusters, there is a correlation between the triage level and hospital mortality, unrelated to gender (p < 0.001). Likewise the use of consulting physicians can be linked to advanced age (p < 0.001). Also the length of stay in the interdisciplinary emergency center correlates highly with age (p < 0.001).
Conclusion: The older emergency patient clearly differs from younger emergency patients in all key performance indicators considered and already poses a special challenge to emergency departments.
Keywords: GeriQ-ED©; Geriatric assessment; Geriatrics; Population dynamics.