Improving Emergency Care for People With Dementia Is Focus of New Grant

The Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (WUSTL Medicine) is one of four institutions awarded $7.5 million in total from the U.S. National Institutes of Health to study and improve care in emergency departments for persons with dementia. The university's Division of Emergency Medicine, which will be rechristened the Department of Emergency Medicine, is one of the recipients. The project will involve specialists in emergency medicine, geriatrics, and dementia working to identify and address gaps in emergency care, with follow-up study results expected to influence policy and care. "Although geriatric emergency care has accelerated and become more formalized over the last decade, the emergency department too often is not an ideal care setting for people with dementia," said WUSTL Medicine Professor Christopher Carpenter. "Our goal is to improve care for older adults with cognitive impairment. Understanding more about their medical conditions and how they wish to be cared for will not only help clinicians better treat older adults with cognitive impairment but also will provide them with discharge plans to keep them safer at home." The first phase of the two-phase study will have co-principal investigators convene an expert panel to review current research on dementia patient care in emergency departments, identify areas for additional research, and create an infrastructure in which scientists nationwide can conduct research. The second phase will fund nine pilot studies through a grant of more than $1.1 million.