Cognitive Impairment in Older Emergency Department Users and Associated Adverse Outcomes

"ER2 is a simple and standardized clinical tool. The results of the questionnaires performed in ER2 study will be used. The assessment component of ER2 consists of 6 very simple closed-ended format questions (i.e., yes versus no) which are: Age category (≥ 85), male, polypharmacy (≥ 5 different medications per day), use of formal (health care or social professional) and/or informal (family and/or friend) home support, use of a walking aid regardless of its type, and temporal disorientation (inability to give the current month and/or year). A score of five points is assigned to the items use of walking aid and temporal disorientation, whereas, for the other items, the assigned score is one point. The weighting of points for ER2 items is based on the results of our previous studies. Scores range from 0 (lowest risk) to 14 (highest risk). ER2 scores stratify the risk for short-term ED adverse events into three levels: low, moderate and high."