FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sonoma Valley Hospital Achieves Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation
August 17, 2026 – Sonoma, CA — The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), with support from The Gary and Mary West Health Institute and John A. Hartford Foundation, implemented the Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation (GEDA) program to recognize those emergency departments that provide excellent care for older adults. As such, we are proud to announce that Sonoma Valley Hospital’s Emergency Department has achieved the bronze standard — Level 3 GEDA accreditation.
The accreditation was made possible by an interdisciplinary team led by Dr. Seric Cusick, Marylou Ehret and colleagues throughout the hospital. By working together, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, rehabilitation professionals and other team members can look beyond a patient’s immediate symptoms, help prevent complications and create a safer transition home.
“This accreditation represents a monumental step forward in aligning the care models and medicine practiced within our hospital’s emergency department to the needs of our community,” says Dr. Cusick. “Just as nurses and emergency physicians receive dedicated training in pediatrics, we have come to appreciate that geriatric outcomes and patient/family experiences can be meaningfully impacted with a similar specialized approach.”
The GEDA program is the culmination of years of progress in emergency care of older adults. In 2014, ACEP along with the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, Emergency Nurses Association, and American Geriatrics Society, developed and released geriatric ED guidelines, recommending measures ranging from adding geriatric-friendly equipment to specialized staff to more routine screening for delirium, dementia, and fall risk, among other vulnerabilities.
The Level 3 GEDA Accreditation—the bronze standard—is awarded by the American College of Emergency Physicians and recognizes emergency departments that have put specific practices in place to better meet the needs of older patients.
To earn the designation, Sonoma Valley Hospital demonstrated its use of best practices in geriatric emergency care, including staff education, appropriate equipment and screening for concerns such as fall risk, delirium and dementia.
For older adults and the people who care for them, the designation offers important reassurance: specialized, age-friendly emergency care is available right here in Sonoma Valley.