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Acute Care for Elders Unit

Our specialized geriatric care unit is designed to prevent health and safety complications and promote independence in older adults. We encourage patients to be mobile, which can shorten recovery time and return them to activities they enjoyed before hospitalization.
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Geriatric Care in a Specialized Setting

Acute care staff members across Methodist Health System are specially trained to care for older adults. At Methodist Hospital, staff members receive additional geriatrics education to work on the Acute Care for Elders (ACE) Unit.

The ACE Unit is designed to address the special needs of older adults, their families and caregivers. Nurses on the ACE Unit are either certified in gerontological nursing or participate in a nurse residency program in geropalliative care called AgeWISE. Additionally, all caregivers receive geriatric-specific education.

The ACE Unit’s physical design and programming are adapted to a patient's age-related changes and includes special features to enhance their mobility and independence, including:

  • Caregiver workstations outside patient rooms
  • Carpeted floors
  • Pet therapy visits
  • Physical therapy evaluations
  • Therapeutic recreation activities
  • Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP) volunteer visits

The ACE Unit conducts daily interdisciplinary 4Ms clinical rounds to check on What Matters to the older adult and their Medications, Mentation and Mobility.

Our goals for patients are to prevent or reduce the following:

  • Delirium (acute confusion)
  • Functional decline
  • Falls
  • Skin breakdown
  • Immobility
  • Constipation
  • Use of urinary catheters
     
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