TITLE:
Can Direct Geriatric Unit Admissions through the Use of Virtual Emergency Medicine Tools Shorten Older Inpatients’ Stay by at Least One Day?
AUTHORS:
Imran Riaz, Roger Clarnette, Janet O’Brien, Bhaskar Mandal, Kevin T Ong
KEYWORDS:
Telemedicine, Older Persons, Emergency Medicine, Ambulance, Paramedics, Virtual Medicine, Length of Stay, Direct Admissions, Geriatric Unit, Geriatrician
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Applied Sciences,
Vol.15 No.12,
December
19,
2025
ABSTRACT: Introduction: Virtual emergency medicine (VEM) enables video calls with paramedics before emergency department (ED) arrival. This allows streamlining of older patients to the Rapid Assessment and Treatment Unit (RATU), specialised in older adult care, bypassing the ED. Aim and Method: This retrospective cross-sectional study with a control group aimed to compare outcomes for older patients admitted to the RATU through the VEM-RATU and non-VEM pathways between January and June 2022. Results: This study included 131 patients (64 VEM and 67 non-VEM). The groups were well-matched in terms of comorbidities and demographics. However, the mean age of non-VEM patients (81.7 [7.3]) was lower than that of VEM patients (84.4 [8.0]) by 2.7 years (p p p Conclusions: Our preliminary data show that the VEM-RATU pathway reduces bed moves and might reduce LoS up to the 80th percentile by ≥1 day. Patients admitted through the VEM-RATU pathway are slightly older than those admitted through the non-VEM pathway. However, the VEM-RATU pathway does not appear to offer additional advantages in terms of discharge destination or reduced hospital-acquired complications. Further research is needed to clarify these preliminary observations.