The emergency department at McLaren Oakland-Oxford, a multispecialty care campus serving all of the Village of Oxford, has earned an advanced accreditation as a sign of its commitment to provide seniors with specialized, high-quality care and recognition of its staff’s proficiency.
The freestanding emergency department has achieved an initial designation as a Level Three Geriatric Emergency Department by the American College of Emergency Physicians, a designation demonstrating that an emergency department has implemented initiatives designed to improve the care of elders.
Motivated to ensure senior patients are cared for in a safe and secure environment, the ER was designed — and the staff was trained — to meet the unique needs of older adults, with specially designed equipment and applications included for their comfort.
Level 3 status indicates that the emergency department has committed to foundational geriatric care initiatives and is actively working to optimize outcomes for older adults. These include strategies to prevent falls, reduce unnecessary hospital admissions, and address issues like polypharmacy and cognitive impairment.
“It is essential that we adapt our care practices in the emergency department in order to best serve our older adult patients,” said Dr. Crystal Arthur, McLaren Health Care Medical Director of Emergency Medicine. “In many cases, our older adult patients arrive to the ED without family or assistance, and it has been very inspiring to see how our care teams have responded by stepping in to advocate for those patients and ensure he or she does not have to go through this experience alone. Those commendable acts demonstrate the staff’s dedication to their patients, and the people of Oxford can feel confident that this level of compassionate care is provided to in community.”
The GED accreditation program sets national standards for geriatric emergency care, and McLaren Oakland-Oxford has committed to foundational geriatric care initiatives and is actively working to optimize clinical outcomes for older adults. These include strategies to prevent falls, reduce unnecessary hospital admissions, and address issues common among older adults, such as cognitive impairment.
Learn more about all services available at McLaren Oakland-Oxford at mclaren.org/oxford.
About McLaren Oakland
McLaren Oakland is a 318-bed hospital that provides primary and specialty healthcare services to the greater Pontiac and Oakland County, Michigan communities. Founded in 1953, McLaren Oakland has grown to a comprehensive medical community that includes outpatient facilities in Clarkston and Oxford, in addition to an inpatient hospital in Pontiac providing a range of clinical services including emergency and trauma care, cardiology, cancer services, minimally invasive robotic surgery, and orthopedic services. McLaren Oakland offers ACGME accredited residency and fellowship programs in anesthesiology, diagnostic radiology, emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, orthopedic surgery, otolaryngology, pulmonary disease and critical care medicine, and transitional year, in addition to a CPME accredited podiatry program. Learn more at mclaren.org/oakland.
About McLaren Health Care
McLaren Health Care, headquartered in Grand Blanc, Michigan, is a $7.3 billion, fully integrated health care delivery system committed to quality, evidence-based patient care and cost efficiency. The McLaren system includes 12 hospitals in Michigan, ambulatory surgery centers, imaging centers, a 640-member employed primary and specialty care physician network, commercial and Medicaid HMOs covering more than 732,838 lives in Michigan and Indiana, home health, infusion and hospice providers, pharmacy services, a clinical laboratory network and a wholly owned medical malpractice insurance company. McLaren operates Michigan’s largest network of cancer centers and providers, anchored by the Karmanos Cancer Institute, a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center. McLaren has 28,000 full-, part-time and contracted employees and more than 113,000 network providers throughout Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. Learn more at mclaren.org.