ACEP offers two emergency department accreditation programs that will enhance your ED, improve patient care, and help you deliver the best quality care you can. Visit the ACEP Accreditation Booth in the Exhibit Hall, Booth #2651, Monday–Wednesday 9:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m. and learn more about our programs.

Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation (GEDA)

The concept of a geriatric emergency department has developed in the past decade as hospitals recognize that one size ED care does not fit all. Older people in the emergency department have presentations, needs, dispositions, and outcomes that are quite specific to them. A geriatric emergency department may be either a separate space designated for older adults or, more likely, the integration of best practices for older adults into an existing emergency department.

Geriatric emergency departments embrace a variety of best practices including:

• Ensuring geriatric-focused education and interdisciplinary staffing.
• Providing standardized approaches to care that address common geriatric issues.
• Ensuring optimal transitions of care from the emergency department to other settings (inpatient, home, community-based care, rehabilitation, and long-term care).
• Promoting geriatric-focused quality improvement and enhancements of the physical environment and supplies.

Becoming a geriatric emergency department will improve the care provided to older people in your emergency department and ensure that the resources to provide that care are available. It also signals to the public that your institution is focused on the highest standards of care for your community’s older citizens. A list of accredited sites is on the ACEP website.

Clinical Ultrasound Accreditation Program (CUAP)

CUAP is an ACEP-governed national accreditation organization with an understanding of clinical bedside ultrasound and a purpose of establishing a system of review for clinical departments performing clinical point-of-care ultrasound (such as the emergency department, critical care, hospitalists, etc.). This accreditation system promotes the goals of quality, patient safety, communication, responsibility, and clarity regarding the use of clinical ultrasound. As the use of ultrasound has become mainstream in clinical medicine, a need has emerged to promulgate and support national standards for clinical ultrasound programs as detailed in the ACEP policy statement, “Ultrasound Guidelines: Emergency, Point-of-Care, and Clinical Ultrasound Guidelines in Medicine.”

CUAP has been developed with the express purpose of providing assistance to those looking to implement a point-of-care ultrasound program so that new programs can take advantage of expert experience to ensure they are meeting best practice standards.

This program includes standards in the areas of administration of ultrasound programs, education and training of health care providers, performing and interpreting ultrasound examinations, equipment management, transducer disinfection, image acquisition and retention, and confidentiality and privacy. A list of accredited sites is on the ACEP website.