Can J Emerg Med
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A 16-month-old presents to the emergency department (ED) after a fall while running at home. Her mother noted some blood in the child's mouth and believed there was a tear in the skin above the front teeth.
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The 2016 Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS) updates introduced frailty screening within triage to more accurately code frail patients who may deteriorate waiting for care. The relationship between triage acuity and frailty is not well understood, but may help inform which supplemental geriatric assessments are beneficial to support care in the emergency department (ED). Our objectives were to investigate the relationship between triage acuity and frailty, and to compare their associations with a series of patient outcomes. ⋯ Our findings demonstrate that frailty and triage acuity are independent but complementary measures. EDs may benefit from comprehensive frailty screening post-triage, as frailty and its associated geriatric syndromes drive outcomes separate from traditional measures of acuity.
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A growing number of frail older adults are treated in the emergency department (ED) and discharged home. There is an unmet need to identify older adults that are predisposed to functional decline and repeat ED visits so as to target them with proactive interventions. ⋯ Gait speed can be feasibly measured at the time of ED discharge to identify frail older adults at risk for early functional decline and subsequent return to the ED. Conversely, grip strength was not found to be associated with functional decline or ED visits.