LEWISTON — St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center’s emergency department has earned a level 3 accreditation for geriatric emergency care through the American College of Emergency Physicians — a national designation that shows staff in an emergency department are trained in specific standards of care for older adults.

Maine has the oldest average age of any state. While hospitals across Maine can provide sufficient emergency care for geriatric patients, hospitals with this accreditation have had training in care specific to this population.

“Any of our older population presenting for any condition would benefit from this extra experience and accreditation that we have,” said Dianne Bunch, St. Mary’s director of emergency services.

St. Mary’s and just five other hospitals in the state have this designation and it’s the only hospital serving the general public in southern and central Maine.

Those five other hospitals are Houlton Regional Hospital, Togus VA Medical Center in Augusta, Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor and Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick.

Though geriatric patients coming into St. Mary’s emergency department will not notice any visible changes, staff members have had specific training in identifying risk factors typical in the population of people, Bunch said.

“Our staff have had that additional training for this age-specific population and it enhances the quality of what we were already doing,” Bunch said.

Staff is trained to conduct screenings for dementia and delirium, assess fall risks and provide other care specific to that age group, she said. There are also certain types of equipment and supplies available to geriatric patients.

The push to attain the national accreditation was spearheaded by Dr. Micah Gaspary and Kelley Parker, a registered nurse, both of whom saw a need for emergency room staff members to be trained in specific care for older patients, Bunch said. The process, which took a little more than a year, was thoughtful and system-driven, she said.

“We strive to be the best that we can be at St. Mary’s, so for us we feel like we’re leading a great initiative for our community,” Bunch said.

With this designation, the hospital must maintain standards set by the accrediting agency to offer a higher level of care for geriatric patients, she said. She hopes that in time the hospital can also attain a higher level designation, such as level 2 or level 1.

St. Joseph Hospital, which like St. Mary’s is owned by Covenant Health, is the only hospital in the state with a level 2 designation.

Those levels require a more broad hospitalwide interaction of practices and resources, but level 3 is a good stepping stone to that, Bunch said.

“We’ve embraced evidence-based practice which suggests good outcomes from having this accreditation,” she said. “We feel proud and excited that this is an accreditation that we’ve obtained.”