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Three geriatricians from Quebec City have founded a clinic to help seniors avoid prolonged stays in the emergency room.
Dr. Valérie Plante, one of the doctors behind the clinic, said visits to the emergency room can have serious health consequences for seniors, clog the health-care network and only lead to hospitalizations half the time.
“When they are discharged [from the ER], they aren’t the same person they were when they arrived. It’s sad,” Plante told Radio-Canada.
It was her desire to “find another solution” to the ER for vulnerable seniors that motivated her to set up a clinic dedicated to semi-urgent cases.
Since 2024, patients with a “geriatric profile” can be referred to the rapid-access clinic for seniors at Santé Québec Capitale-Nationale (formerly known as the CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale) by their family doctor or the emergency department.
Cognitive decline, falls and symptoms of dementia are among the reasons patients are referred to this clinic.
Plante says patients redirected away from the ER to the clinic reduce their stay by an average of 10 hours.
And according to statistics from Santé Québec Capitale-Nationale, the average wait time for a first appointment is less than four days. In 2025–2026, the clinic treated 685 patients, exceeding its target of 600.
Meeting seniors’ needs
Dr. Marcel Émond, an emergency physician, researcher, and professor at Université Laval, praises the initiative.
He describes the emergency room as an environment that is “a bit hostile” for seniors and notes that he has personally referred elderly patients to the clinic.
“As emergency physicians, we think this is perhaps one of the solutions to look forward to, ensuring that seniors get the right care at the right time by the right practitioners,” said Émond.
A consultation at the rapid-access clinic is very different from a visit to the ER, explained Plante.
“We have a set up that allows for calm and for making ourselves properly understood,” she said.
“That is not at all the experience in the ER when there’s a baby crying next you, an intoxicated person on the other stretcher, and you’re trying to talk a patient who can barely hear you.”
Plante also pointed out that a 10-hour stay on a stretcher increases the risk of delirium — acute confusion — by two to five times in geriatric patients with cognitive disorders. The long-term effects can be severe, resulting in “a decrease in functioning six months later, a fivefold increase in cognitive disorders, and a doubling of mortality.”
But she also emphasized that seniors should not be afraid to go to the emergency room and encourages them do so if they have an urgent medical issue.
‘An inspiring initiative’
In the bright offices of the rapid-access clinic, located within the Saint-Sacrement Hospital, stretchers are set up in the consultation rooms but are rarely used by patients.
Plante explained that one day of immobility on a stretcher could lead to a week of rehabilitation for some seniors.
For a more efficient visit, patients and their loved ones fill out questionnaires and undergo examinations before arriving at the clinic. Plante says an average visit lasts three hours.
“It makes me proud when an elderly person tells me, ‘Thank you, you did that so well, I’ve never had a consultation like this!'” she said.
“That right there makes my day. No salary can match that pleasure.”
Health Minister Sonia Bélanger, who is also the minister responsible for seniors, caregivers and social services, applauded the clinic, calling it “an inspiring initiative that responds to the challenges of an aging population.”
The clinic even received an award in the ‘minister’s favourite’ category at Santé Québec’s Prix Empreinte awards ceremony in early June.
Bélanger added that she hopes to see similar clinics across the province.
Émond, who was the first emergency physician to conduct research in geriatric emergency medicine in Quebec, also hopes this will come to fruition.
“Each region must adapt [these alternatives] based on their resources to avoid unnecessary ER stays,” he said.
While some regions have implemented adapted services for seniors within emergency departments, Plante said she’s not aware of any other standalone clinics like hers in the province, but added that her initiative has gotten a lot of interest from colleagues.
