Serving the Most Vulnerable
Older adults represent a rapidly growing population in need of emergency care. For Advocate Health, these patients face a high risk of admission, prolonged boarding, harmful hospital-acquired conditions, and other factors that drive costly revisits. In response, Advocate Health’s Illinois and Wisconsin systems launched a unified effort to strengthen care for older adults through the Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation (GEDA) program. The goal was to provide consistent high-quality care to older adults across 25 EDs, regardless of hospital size.
From Evidence to Innovation
Grounded in the GEDA framework, their approach centered on evidence-based care. This meant implementing proven care processes such as universal screening using the ISAR tool, standardized workflows for falls and mobility, and social work consults. These protocols were then embedded in the EHR, prompting physicians to use appropriate interventions.
To drive continual improvement, Advocate Health created a robust digital dashboard. Leveraging existing reports, it tracked care process adoption as well as outcomes. Program team members used it to spot trends and support site leaders with targeted feedback, improving performance at a local level.
Standardized Care with Local Flexibility
Accredited sites saw impressive results. These included:
- 19% lower odds of 30-day ED revisit
- 11% lower odds of unplanned hospital admission for older adults who received post-ED service orders
- 43-minute shorter average LOS at GED sites vs non-GEDs
- 6.9% higher patient experience scores at GED sites vs non-GEDs
With GEDA care processes in place, Advocate Health showed how evidence-based care can enable meaningful change. Sites reduced variability while retaining the flexibility to tailor core processes to their populations and resources. This created a replicable model that could be rolled out at scale, while positioning sites to meet the CMS Age-Friendly Hospital Measure.
Read the Full Case Study
Explore all the details of the Advocate Health success story.
Learn More About GEDA Accreditation
By pursuing GEDA accreditation, your hospital or health system can meaningfully improve care for older adults while meeting broader organizational goals. Learn more about the advantages of GEDA accreditation and how to apply.
Discover How GEDA Strengthens CMS Compliance
GEDA care processes embed core tenets of the CMS Age-Friendly Hospital Measure into ED workflows. Explore how this helps improve geriatric emergency care while meeting national standards.