Inpatient Geriatric Services

Inpatient Geriatric Services

Acute Care of the Elderly (ACE)

Acute Care of the Elderly, or ACE, is a focused approach to inpatient geriatric care that will place otherwise healthy elderly patients with acute medical problems (like flu or pneumonia) in a special unit where a concerted effort can be made to prevent functional decline. On August 23, 2010, St. Luke's Warren Hospital opened an ACE unit on 3 North. It is the only unit in the Lehigh Valley and the 9^th in New Jersey.

Too often highly functioning adults, ages 75 and over, are admitted to the hospital for a few days and are so weakened by the experience that they become too frail to return to their independent lives. Instead of going home after discharge, these patients are re-routed to nursing homes or rehab facilities, and their ability to return to self sufficiency is compromised.

To avoid this phenomenon, patients who are admitted to the ACE unit will be seen not only by their attending physician or hospitalist, but by a special team, which includes a dietician, pharmacist, social worker, case manager, physical therapist, nurses and a geriatrician or geriatric nurse practitioner. Under the guidance of this team, ACE patients are gently pushed to maintain their ambulation and strength from the time they are admitted until their discharge.

Candidates for the ACE unit must be 75 or older, admitted from home or from assisted living, cognitively intact and willing to be active participants in their own care.