skip to Main Content
design lab melanie mccomsey geriatric thornton hospital

Improving Senior Care Through Geriatric Emergency Department Research

Improving Senior Care Through Geriatric Emergency Department Research

Improving Senior Care Through Geriatric Emergency Department Research

Geriatric emergency departments  (GEDs) are specialized facilities designed to cater to the medical needs of the elderly. They are a relatively new trend in hospitals, yet little research has been done on their progress and evolution.

In 2016, UC San Diego’s Thornton Hospital received an $11.8 million grant from the Gary and Mary West Foundation to create the San Diego region’s first geriatric emergency room and as of 2017 is now operational. “When we started this project, the geriatric emergency room at UCSD’s Thornton Hospital was already being planned. We wanted to look at the best practices in other existing GED programs that are part of the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative. From there we gathered ideas that could be implemented in Thornton hospital,” says Melanie McComsey, a design anthropologist and postdoctoral researcher at the UC San Diego Design Lab. “We needed to determine what different programs were doing, how those programs evolved, and what they learned.”

A joint project between UCSD Health, UCSD Design Lab, and the non-profit West Health Institute, McComsey and her West Health colleague, James Howard, visited four different GED departments around the United States. The pair performed observational ethnographic research at each of the sites, shadowing providers and getting a sense of their job and workflow. Through this, they were able to gain a better understanding of how each GED operated.

One of the most interesting findings that emerged from the project was that each program had developed locally-specific innovations.

“A lot of the most interesting innovations were closely tailored to that specific program and wouldn’t make sense to implement at Thornton,” says McComsey. “We used ‘‘lead user design’ to look at local providers, and in some cases even local patients. Those patients had noticed a need or an opportunity and had done something about it and the idea spread across the hospital.”

An example of an interesting local innovation was a nurse who created his own follow-up program upon noticing that a number of the patients returned to the ER for reasons related to their previous condition.

“What was really cool about this approach was the nurse was able to get permission from the hospital to follow up with patients at home. He would ride his commuter bike stocked with a first aid kit to these patients’ houses to check-in and follow-up after their ER visit,” says McComsey. “It was so successful that the hospital actually institutionalized these follow-up visits. The hospital purchased a van, got the right insurance and approvals, and sent him back to school to become a nurse practitioner which gave him the skill-set to improve patient care.”

Aside from best practices, another goal of the project was to gain insight on the benefits of GEDs and determine whether they would be an effective way to aid the aging population. The number of people over the age of 65 is set to double within the next 50 years, and it’s important to study this demographic and establish programs to allow them to live comfortably in our society.

Geriatric emergency departments  (GEDs) are specialized facilities designed to cater to the medical needs of the elderly. They are a relatively new trend in hospitals, yet little research has been done on their progress and evolution.

In 2016, UC San Diego’s Thornton Hospital received an $11.8 million grant from the Gary and Mary West Foundation to create the San Diego region’s first geriatric emergency room and as of 2017 is now operational. “When we started this project, the geriatric emergency room at UCSD’s Thornton Hospital was already being planned. We wanted to look at the best practices in other existing GED programs that are part of the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative. From there we gathered ideas that could be implemented in Thornton hospital,” says Melanie McComsey, a design anthropologist and postdoctoral researcher at the UC San Diego Design Lab. “We needed to determine what different programs were doing, how those programs evolved, and what they learned.”

A joint project between UCSD Health, UCSD Design Lab, and the non-profit West Health Institute, McComsey and her West Health colleague, James Howard, visited four different GED departments around the United States. The pair performed observational ethnographic research at each of the sites, shadowing providers and getting a sense of their job and workflow. Through this, they were able to gain a better understanding of how each GED operated.

One of the most interesting findings that emerged from the project was that each program had developed locally-specific innovations.

“A lot of the most interesting innovations were closely tailored to that specific program and wouldn’t make sense to implement at Thornton,” says McComsey. “We used ‘‘lead user design’ to look at local providers, and in some cases even local patients. Those patients had noticed a need or an opportunity and had done something about it and the idea spread across the hospital.”

An example of an interesting local innovation was a nurse who created his own follow-up program upon noticing that a number of the patients returned to the ER for reasons related to their previous condition.

“What was really cool about this approach was the nurse was able to get permission from the hospital to follow up with patients at home. He would ride his commuter bike stocked with a first aid kit to these patients’ houses to check-in and follow-up after their ER visit,” says McComsey. “It was so successful that the hospital actually institutionalized these follow-up visits. The hospital purchased a van, got the right insurance and approvals, and sent him back to school to become a nurse practitioner which gave him the skill-set to improve patient care.”

Aside from best practices, another goal of the project was to gain insight on the benefits of GEDs and determine whether they would be an effective way to aid the aging population. The number of people over the age of 65 is set to double within the next 50 years, and it’s important to study this demographic and establish programs to allow them to live comfortably in our society.

Geriatric emergency departments  (GEDs) are specialized facilities designed to cater to the medical needs of the elderly. They are a relatively new trend in hospitals, yet little research has been done on their progress and evolution.

In 2016, UC San Diego’s Thornton Hospital received an $11.8 million grant from the Gary and Mary West Foundation to create the San Diego region’s first geriatric emergency room and as of 2017 is now operational. “When we started this project, the geriatric emergency room at UCSD’s Thornton Hospital was already being planned. We wanted to look at the best practices in other existing GED programs that are part of the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative. From there we gathered ideas that could be implemented in Thornton hospital,” says Melanie McComsey, a design anthropologist and postdoctoral researcher at the UC San Diego Design Lab. “We needed to determine what different programs were doing, how those programs evolved, and what they learned.”

A joint project between UCSD Health, UCSD Design Lab, and the non-profit West Health Institute, McComsey and her West Health colleague, James Howard, visited four different GED departments around the United States. The pair performed observational ethnographic research at each of the sites, shadowing providers and getting a sense of their job and workflow. Through this, they were able to gain a better understanding of how each GED operated.

One of the most interesting findings that emerged from the project was that each program had developed locally-specific innovations.

“A lot of the most interesting innovations were closely tailored to that specific program and wouldn’t make sense to implement at Thornton,” says McComsey. “We used ‘‘lead user design’ to look at local providers, and in some cases even local patients. Those patients had noticed a need or an opportunity and had done something about it and the idea spread across the hospital.”

An example of an interesting local innovation was a nurse who created his own follow-up program upon noticing that a number of the patients returned to the ER for reasons related to their previous condition.

“What was really cool about this approach was the nurse was able to get permission from the hospital to follow up with patients at home. He would ride his commuter bike stocked with a first aid kit to these patients’ houses to check-in and follow-up after their ER visit,” says McComsey. “It was so successful that the hospital actually institutionalized these follow-up visits. The hospital purchased a van, got the right insurance and approvals, and sent him back to school to become a nurse practitioner which gave him the skill-set to improve patient care.”

Aside from best practices, another goal of the project was to gain insight on the benefits of GEDs and determine whether they would be an effective way to aid the aging population. The number of people over the age of 65 is set to double within the next 50 years, and it’s important to study this demographic and establish programs to allow them to live comfortably in our society.

Read Next

Design Lab Melanie Mccomsey Geriatric Thornton Hospital

Improving Senior Care Through Geriatric Emergency Department Research

Geriatric emergency departments  (GEDs) are specialized facilities designed to cater to the medical needs of…

Meet Member of Postdoctoral Fellowship Program’s Debut Cohort: Jane E

Jane E is part of UCSD’s Computer Science and Engineering’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program and is currently a member of  The Design Lab under the guidance of mentor Scott Klemmer. E’s journey to The Design Lab started when she earned her B.S. in Computer Science in 2012 at Princeton, then studied as a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at Stanford University. Along the way, she has worked in the information technology sector for companies like Adobe and Microsoft, and her awards include the Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant. Jane’s research aims to expand the horizons of human creativity by searching for a balanced relationship between humans and computational assistance. 
Ucsd Design Lab Platforms

How pizza could save the world

On a recent Hawaiian vacation, Don stayed at a truly luxurious resort. It wasn’t his style. He couldn’t help but notice the contrast with the poorer sections of the island where locals lived and tourists rarely ventured. Is this the planet’s future? Two distinct cultures, one of isolated wealth and excess, the other of poverty? When we discussed this question, Don couldn’t help but mention he’d also found amazing pizza on the island.
Design Lab Michele Morris Greg Horowitt Scale

Smart Cities: Urban Innovation & Design Thinking

UC San Diego Design Lab Associate Director Michèle Morris recently joined venture capitalist, entrepreneur and…

Ailie Fraser UCSD Design Lab

Ailie Fraser Aims to Support People Doing Creative Tasks with Software

“There’s so much helpful content available now, but how can it be understood and consumed by a novice?” asks Ailie Fraser, a PhD graduate, “That’s what I’m interested in answering.” She is a part of a generation of upcoming design innovators, working collaboratively with The Design Lab. Her recently published dissertation aims to support people doing creative tasks with software specifically by leveraging resources generated by experts and bringing them into the context of people's workflows; in order to make them simpler to navigate and understand.

Fraser received her PhD from UCSD in Computer Science this past spring, and is now working full-time as a Research Engineer at Adobe Research. During her PhD, she completed three internships with Adobe Research. During her first internship, she focused on the domain of photo editing in Photoshop and addressed the problems novices experience when they begin to use the application. Due to the plethora of features and tools offered by the service, it can often be overwhelming to those unfamiliar with Photoshop.
Bennett Peji

Meet Designer-in-Residence Bennett Peji

When Bennett Peji was asked to join The Design Lab as a Designer-in-Residence, he immediately said yes. “It was a natural fit,” he explains. “The Design Lab is composed of so many talented people, both in leadership and in its students, who have tremendous technical abilities, but also a big heart for using that expertise for the greater good.” Peji works with the Community team at The Design Lab, working on ways to define what it means for San Diego to be a global city. He is the Chief Innovation Officer at several businesses and Chairman of California Humanities. “Seeing us all collectively as being a very unique region in the world is one distinguishing factor in developing the opportunities that we have here. My role is to be a connector and a bridge builder to organizations who are like-minded. Like-minded in terms of seeing our region holistically and working for more ways to collaborate and create greater economic opportunities and access.”

Peji is a walking example of practicing what he preaches in order to present San Diego as a unique, diverse, global city. He emphasizes that it is not enough to just be welcoming. We must be truly inclusive. “The real work is to include and empower the folks who have never been to the table, who don't think and act and see the world the way we do, so that we can all have a more profound way of looking at the problems.” To do this, Peji has not been afraid to be the one swimming upstream. “We all have to find our way in this world called America and do the best we can. But since I’ve been on this journey for so long now, it has become so clear that it is not about assimilating [but instead] finding your own voice and expressing your own unique and distinct identity.”
Back To Top