Age-friendly emergency department
The Department of Emergency Medicine at UC Davis Health treats critically ill or injured adults and children 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The team consists of physicians, nurses, residents, and 26 specialists from every medical and surgical specialty. The Emergency Department is located in the Surgery and Emergency Services Pavilion at UC Davis Medical Center.
In 2022, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) awarded Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation — Gold Level 1, the highest level of accreditation — to the geriatric emergency department (ED). UC Davis Health is the only ED in Sacramento to earn this accreditation and joins only 21 other EDs in the nation that have achieved gold status.
The ED is also recognized as an Age-Friendly Health Systems Committed to Care Excellence for its age-friendly approach. The team focuses on the 4Ms framework:
- What Matters: Know and align care with each older adult's specific health outcome goals and care preferences, including, but not limited to, end-of-life care and across settings of care.
- Medication: If medication is necessary, use age-friendly medication that does not interfere with What Matters to the older adult, Mobility, or Mentation across settings of care.
- Mentation (mental activity): Prevent, identify, treat and manage dementia, depression and delirium across settings of care.
- Mobility: Ensure that older adults move safely every day to maintain function and do What Matters.