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A Queensland nursing project focused on providing quicker and more personalised treatment to older patients has received a state award.
The Geriatric Emergency Department Intervention (GEDI) won the customer focus category at the 2016 Queensland Premier’s Awards for Excellence.
The project is a joint effort between the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC), Nambour Hospital and the Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service. It was developed by USC nursing academics and a team of nurses and doctors with specialist geriatric experience.
GEDI aims to decrease hospital and emergency admission rates for elderly people and reduce their length of stay, while improving staff and patient satisfaction.
Professor of nursing Marianne Wallis, who heads the GEDI team at USC, said emergency departments can be confusing, noisy and quite dangerous places for frail older people.
“We’re making sure they spend as little time as possible in that environment, and can quickly access the specific kind of care they need,” Wallis said. “The preliminary results of the project are so encouraging that we have already received state funding to have this program rolled out on a wider scale.”
GEDI is part of a larger project that aims to strengthen the capacity of the aged-care sector and improve interaction between aged-care facilities and hospitals.
Nursing Review sat down with Wallis to find out how GEDI helps to reduce the length of people’s hospital stays and how other hospitals or health services can be involved in the project.
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