Main entrance of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, in Lebanon, N.H.
Council member Dartmouth-Hitchcock has announced plans to open a Geriatric Emergency Department in Lebanon, NH. Dartmouth-Hitchcock is New Hampshire’s largest private employer and only academic health system.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock will partner with West Health, a group of nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations dedicated to lowering healthcare costs for seniors, to establish their geriatric ER. Over the next three years, Dartmouth-Hitchcock plans to develop specialized areas within its emergency department and then use telehealth to spread the practices to four other sites in the region. The geriatric ER will be designed with protocols, resources, and specialized care areas to optimize the acute care of senior citizens. The majority of hospitals implementing geriatric ER’s are located in urban or larger medical centers, making the Dartmouth-Hitchcock-West Health partnership the first in the nation to focus on a largely rural population.
“Improving the delivery of care in rural areas is one of the strategic imperatives for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, as we grow to meet the needs of patients around the region,” said Dartmouth-Hitchcock CEO and President Joanne M. Conroy, MD. “With our strong programs and passionate providers in Emergency Medicine and Geriatrics, along with our dynamic Connected Care Center, we are uniquely qualified for the development of a rural telehealth model of geriatric emergency care that this collaboration will enable.”
