GARDENA, Calif. - July 30, 2019 - Memorial Hospital of Gardena (MHG) announced today that it has received its Bronze Standard/Level 3 Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation (GEDA) from the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP).

"With a high percentage of older adults visiting our Emergency Department, often with multiple or chronic conditions, it is our duty to make sure that our teams have all of the skills, equipment and training to take the best possible care of these individuals," said Kathy Wojno, CEO of MHG. "This initiative and certification holds us to the highest possible standard of geriatric care and services."

The GEDA program is the culmination of years of progress in emergency care of older adults. In 2014, ACEP along with Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, Emergency Nurses Association, and American Geriatrics Society, developed and released geriatric ED guidelines, recommending measures ranging from adding geriatric-friendly equipment to specialized staff to more routine screening for delirium, dementia, and fall risk, among other vulnerabilities.

The voluntary GEDA program, which includes three levels similar to trauma center designations, provides specific criteria and goals for emergency clinicians and administrators to target. The accreditation process provides more than two dozen best practices for geriatric care and the level of GEDA accreditation achieved depends upon how many of these best practices an emergency department is able to meet. A Level 3 emergency department must incorporate many of these best practices, along with providing inter-disciplinary geriatric education, and having geriatric appropriate equipment and supplies available.

About Avanti Hospitals
The Avanti hospital system operates in the Greater Los Angeles area, and includes Memorial Hospital of Gardena, Coast Plaza Hospital in Norwalk, East Los Angeles Doctors Hospital, and Community Hospital of Huntington Park. Avanti's mission is to continue our hospitals' longstanding tradition of improving the overall health of the communities we serve by providing affordable, high-quality healthcare services with consistency and compassion. For more information, visit www.avantihospitals.com.

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Amie Boersma