New York State Age-Friendly Health System Initiative May 21, 2019

Age-Friendly Health System An Age-Friendly Health System guides an older adult’s care through an essential set of evidence-based practices called the 4Ms: What Matters Medication Mentation Mobility Age-friendly care is achieved by: Better health outcomes; Reduced waste associated with unneeded services; and Increased utilization of cost-effective services.

The 4Ms The 4Ms are evidence-based practices that define how a health system can become age-friendly: What Matters: Know and align care with each older adult’s specific health outcome goals and care preferences. Medication: If medication is necessary, use age-friendly medications that do not interfere with What Matters, Mobility, or Mentation across care settings. Mentation: Prevent, identify, treat, and manage dementia, depression, and delirium across care settings. Mobility: Ensure that older adults move safely every day in order to maintain function and do What Matters.

New York State Age-Friendly Health System Initiative In 2018, the Governor set a goal of making 50 percent of New York State’s health systems age-friendly within the next five years. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement and John A. Hartford Foundation launched a national campaign to make 20 percent of all U.S hospitals and medical practices age-friendly by 2020. To work collectively toward each other’s goals, New York State has partnered with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and John A. Hartford Foundation.

Organization-Specific Implementation Each organization’s implementation of the 4Ms will vary depending on their work environment. Incorporate asking What Matters to a patient on every visit. Implement a workflow that requires screening for depression, delirium, or dementia whenever an older adult arrives in the Emergency Department. Work with the inpatient pharmacy for a comprehensive review of medications upon discharge to ensure that all medications are still appropriate and achieve What Matters to the patient. Update policies to ensure each older adult that is admitted to a hospital continues to be mobile during their stay.

New York State Support For the first year New York State Department of Health partnered with Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) to support hospitals that were ready to immediately implement age-friendly measures by encouraging them to join IHI Action Community. Approximately 14 organizations have participated in Action Communities. An Action Community is: A 6-month boot camp to implement age-friendly practices in certain areas of an organization with the goal to scale up to the rest of the organization.

New York State Support This year the Department is looking to: Develop a targeted outreach campaign to educate hospitals on what it means to be age-friendly and why it is important. Explore opportunities in incorporate Age-Friendly Health System priorities into State language. Work with health foundation and other funders on supporting hospitals looking to become age-friendly.

Questions Contact: ALTCteam@health.ny.gov