PORT JEFFERSON, NY – Mather Hospital has been designated an age-friendly health system at the highest level of “Committed to Care Excellence” by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). Age-Friendly Health Systems aim to follow a set of evidence-based practices, cause no harm and align with what matters to the older adult and their family caregivers.
“We’re very excited that Mather has been recognized as an age-friendly health system committed to care excellence,” said Carolina de Elia, MD, co-chair of the project and director of Mather’s Palliative Medicine Program. “What that means is we have achieved the highest acknowledged recognition that the IHI designates for age friendly health organizations. This is a huge achievement for our team and all the hard work that its members within our organization have put into clinical transformation processes.”
“We have really engaged enthusiastic interdisciplinary leads and teams that understand the mission of what we are trying to achieve.” said Richard Poveromo, LMSW, CCM, HEC-C, assistant vice president, Transitions of Care, and the project’s co-chair. “The work being done on each of the ‘4Ms’ is really driving a hospital-wide culture change to provide safer care to older patients and our community at large and I’m proud of the progress we have made together.”
The 4Ms make up a set of four evidence-based elements of high-quality care that Age-Friendly Health Systems must reliably adhere to:
- What matters most– align care to each older adult’s specific health outcome goals and care preferences
- Medication – use age-friendly medications that don’t interfere with what matters, mobility or mentation
- Mentation – prevent, identify, treat and manage dementia, depression and delirium
- Mobility – ensure that older adults move safely to maintain function and do what matters
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. population aged 65+ will go from 43.1 million in 2012 to an estimated 83.7 million in 2050. “These demographic advances, however extraordinary, have left our health systems behind as they struggle to reliably provide evidence-based practice to every older adult at every care interaction,” according to the IHI.