How to Help Prevent the Next Fall in Your Older Patients
With Elizabeth Goldberg, MD
1 in 4 adults 65+ fall each year and 1 out of 5 falls causes a serious injury. Fall death rates in the US increased by 30% between 2007 and 2016 and with the aging population this is an important and costly national problem. Falls cost Medicare $52 billion in 2020.
Gemcast host Dr. Christina Shenvi sits down with Dr. Elizabeth Goldberg to discuss falls and what ED clinicians can practically do in the ED. As the principal investigator of GAPcare – the Geriatric Acute and Post-Acute Fall Prevention Intervention, Dr. Goldberg developed and tested a multidisciplinary intervention that significantly reduced fall-related ED visits for older adults.
In this episode they answer the questions: What is the falls syndrome? How do we evaluate a patient who has fallen in the ED? What we can do in the ED and on discharge from the ED to prevent future falls? And what are some barriers that clinicians may face?
Resources
- Goldberg EM, Marks SJ, Ilegbusi A, Resnik L, Strauss DH, Merchant RC. GAPcare: The Geriatric Acute and Post-Acute Fall Prevention Intervention in the Emergency Department: Preliminary Data. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2020 Jan;68(1):198-206. doi: 10.1111/jgs.16210. Epub 2019 Oct 17. PMID: 31621901; PMCID: PMC7001768. – View Article
- Goldberg EM, Marks SJ, Resnik LJ, Long S, Mellott H, Merchant RC. 2020. Can an Emergency Department–Initiated Intervention Prevent Subsequent Falls and Health Care Use in Older Adults? A Randomized Controlled Trial. Annals of Emergency Medicine. 76(6):739–750. doi:10.1016/j.annemergmed.2020.07.025. – View Article