[February 23, 2015]

Prime Healthcare and Encino Hospital Medical Center Launch First Geriatric Emergency Room and Geriatric Inpatient Unit in Southern California

Prime Healthcare Services, as part of its commitment to excellence in compassionate care and innovation, has announced the opening of the first Geriatric Emergency Room and Geriatric Inpatient Unit in California.

The new program will launch at Encino Hospital Medical Center (EHMC) and has been designed to provide specialized care for senior patients from their initial Emergency Room experience through the end of their hospital stay. The program will be launched on March 2, making EHMC California's first hospital to offer this level of coordinated and specialized geriatric care.

"As patients age, their medical histories become complicated," noted Dr. Jason Greenspan, director of Encino Hospital's emergency room who will supervise the new operations. "Elderly patients may take multiple medications with potentially negative interactions, or they may have functional and cognitive impairments that complicate treatment. Our new geriatric emergency and inpatient units will address these specific needs in an innovative, ground-breaking way."

The program was developed in collaboration with Emergent Medical Associates (EMA (News - Alert)), the hospital's Emergency Department's partner. The geriatric inpatient unit will be led by Dr. David H. Stern, Medical Director of S+AGE®, the Specialized Ambulatory Geriatric Evaluation Center.

"The program has been designed to make the emergency room visit and hospital stay compassionate, comfortable and effective," said Dr. Sunny Bhatia, Chief Medical Officer of Encino Medical Center. "The features of the geriatric rooms are designed to address the needs of our senior patients and enhance their experience with added comfort and safety, such as thicker mattresses, nonskid floors, handrails and soothing colors. All the inpatient geriatric rooms are private."

Emergency Room nurses will have special training in assessing geriatric patients and caring for them. A team of physicians, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, pharmacists, case managers, social workers and dieticians, all specialists in the care of the elderly, will be available to treat individual patients as needed. Daily reviews of patients in the inpatient geriatric unit will ensure appropriate care during their hospitalization and will establish guidelines for care at home.

An Open House, Grand Opening event will take place Wednesday, February 25, 2015 from 4-6pm.
Media/Press Event only will be from 11-12pm.

About Prime Healthcare

Prime Healthcare is an award-winning national hospital system with 32 acute-care hospitals providing more than 35,000 jobs in nine states. Based in California and one of the largest hospital systems in the country, Prime Healthcare is committed to ensuring access to quality healthcare. It has been recognized as among the "100 Top Hospitals" in the nation 27 times and among the "15 Top Health Systems" three times, and is the only "10 Top Health System" west of the Mississippi. Our hospitals have been recognized by The Joint Commission among the "Top Performers on Key Quality Measures" in 2014.

Prime Healthcare is dedicated to serving our patients and communities. Since 2010, our hospitals have provided more than $2 billion in charity and uncompensated care. We provide more charity care than any other hospital system in California (excluding public hospitals) and nearly double the state average. With over $800 million invested in capital improvements since 2005, we are committed to transforming all of our hospitals into award-winning centers of excellence. For more information, please visit www.primehealthcare.com

About Encino Hospital Medical Center

Encino Hospital Medical Center is a 150-bed not-for-profit Prime Healthcare hospital located in Encino, California. It is staffed with 330 physicians and 520 professional support staff. Servicing the greater San Fernando Valley, EHMC provides 24/7 ER and Senior ER Services in addition to a wide range of highly specialized medical, surgical and diagnostic services. Attracting many world-class physicians, their professional clinical teams use an interdisciplinary approach to ensure comprehensive care for each patient.

To learn more about Encino Hospital Medical Center visit www.encinomed.org.

About S+AGE ®

S+AGE ® was established 28 years ago by Dan Osterweil M.D., professor of medicine at UCLA. S+AGE ® specializes in the problems of the elderly including early memory loss, gait instability, dementia disorders including Alzheimer's disease, urinary incontinence and other complex chronic conditions.

To learn more about S+AGE® visit www.sagecares.com.

About Emergent Medical Associates

Emergent Medical Associates ("EMA") is a leading provider of emergency care and episodic care management services to patients, communities, physician groups and hospitals throughout California. Their hospital clients include 20 sites caring for over 600,000 patients annually. Their proven physicians, proprietary methods and management techniques as well as uncompromising standards allow them to create "Departments of Excellence" for their clients based on the provision of superior patient care to the communities they serve.

To learn more about Emergent Medical Associates visit www.ema.us.

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