Assessing Frailty and the Need for Specialist Gerontology Input in an Emergency General Surgery Patient Population, and the Outcomes Following Implementation of a Joint Care Model

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Introduction Improved healthcare and socioeconomic systems is leading to a global increase in life expectancy. This has resulted in an increasingly older and comorbid population presenting to emergency general surgery services. Early assessment of frailty and involvement of gerontology specialists is recommended to manage the preoperative risk factors associated with this population. The Clinical Frailty Score (CFS) is a simple tool that can be used for predicting perioperative morbidity and mortality in this high-risk group. Methods We have undertaken a prospective study of admissions under a dedicated Emergency General Surgery (EGS) service, in a Model 4 tertiary hospital, over the course of 10 weeks. We aimed to assess the prevalence of frailty in our older patient population, and assess the need for specialised Gerontology input. Results Over the 10 week period, there were 570 admissions under the EGS service, 27% of which were over the age of 65. 46% of older patients admitted were identified as frail (CFS ≥ 5). 11% had a documented delirium. Only 7% of those ≥65 were seen by Gerontology throughout their admission. Conclusion We are now implementing a shared care model with our Gerontology colleagues for those older patients admitted under the EGS service in our centre, based on these results. This will be audited in the coming weeks to formally assess for the expected improvement in outcomes for elderly patients under the care of the EGS team. We expect data collection to be completed later in 2026.