An initiative by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), the John A. Hartford Foundation, the American Hospital Association and the Catholic Health Association which aims to: follow an essential set of evidence-based practices, cause no harm, and align with what matters to the older adult and their family caregivers.
Deeper dive
Becoming an Age-Friendly Health System entails “reliably providing a set of four evidence-based elements of high-quality care, known as the “4Ms,” to all older adults in a specific system: What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility, according to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
These 4Ms encompass:
What matters: Know and align care with each older adult’s specific health outcome goals and care preferences including, but not limited to, end-of-life care, and across settings of care.
Medication: If medication is necessary, use age-friendly medication that do not interfere with what matters to the older adult, mobility, or mentation across care settings.
Mentation: Prevent, identify, treat, and manage dementia, depression, and delirium across settings of care.
Mobility: Ensure that older adults move safely every day to maintain function and do what matters.
According to this article by Terry Fulmer, Ph.D., R.N.; Kedar Mate, M.D.; and Amy Berman, R.N., “an age‐friendly health system would keep healthy older adults healthy, be proactive in addressing potential health needs, prevent avoidable harms, improve care of those with serious illness and at the end of life, and support family caregivers throughout.”