Recognition and management of patients with frailty in the emergency department

In the UK, around 10% of adults aged over 65 years and around one quarter to a half of adults aged over 85 years have frailty. Early identification of frailty can improve patient outcomes, so it is vital that emergency department (ED) healthcare professionals, including nurses, understand and can recognise the signs and symptoms of this health state. This article describes frailty and outlines the relationship between common presenting complaints in older people in the ED and frailty syndromes. The article summarises some commonly used frailty screening tools that have been validated for use in acute and emergency care settings and details a frailty screening tool used in the authors' hospital. The authors also outline some important principles of management of patients with frailty in the ED.