Mass General Brigham Announces $16.4 Million Initiative at Brigham and Women’s Hospital to Transform Healthcare and Improve Outcomes for Older Adults
Boston, MA—Nov. 18, 2024—Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), a founding member of Mass General Brigham and national leader in geriatric care, and the West Health Institute, an applied medical research organization focused on healthcare and aging, announce the creation of the West Health Accelerator at Mass General Brigham. The $16.4 million, multi-year collaboration and initiative will help speed the transformation of healthcare for older adults across the region and throughout the nation.
The new initiative builds on the success of the BWH Superior Treatment of Elders Pathway (STEP) Program, which has improved patient outcomes and reduced hospital readmissions for thousands of seniors after surgical procedures since it began in 2016. BWH will serve as the inaugural site for the West Health Accelerator and lead its implementation at eight additional Mass General Brigham hospitals over the next four years.
“Mass General Brigham has an impressive track record of implementing proven approaches to improving care and outcomes for hospitalized seniors,” says David F. M. Brown, MD, president, Academic Medical Centers, Mass General Brigham, one of the largest hospital system-based research enterprises in the country. “The collaboration between Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the West Health Institute allows us to amplify and accelerate these efforts across our system and create a national model for others to follow.”
The United States is in the midst of one of the biggest demographic shifts in its history. By 2030, 1 in 5 Americans will be 65 or older, creating an even bigger demand for healthcare tailored to the unique, complex needs of seniors, who mostly live with at least two chronic conditions and account for more than 40% of inpatient hospital procedures.
“Through the West Health Accelerator at Mass General Brigham, we’re creating new operational efficiencies and innovations that scale, optimize, and embed best practices across health systems and regions,” says Shelley Lyford, CEO and chair of the West Health Institute and the Gary and Mary West Foundation, which have funded and helped shape more than $500 million in initiatives that lower healthcare costs and improve aging in America. “This program can help hospitals better meet the increasingly complex demands placed on our health systems.”
The West Health Accelerator, co-led by Zara Cooper, MD, MSc, director of Brigham and Women’s Center for Geriatric Surgery and the Center for Surgery and Public Health, and Rachelle Bernacki, MD, MS, director of care transformation and postoperative services, Center for Geriatric Surgery, will develop data-driven protocols, conduct clinician training, establish key metrics, and leverage the latest technologies to improve patient care for hospitalized seniors. The team of collaborators will also develop a geriatric care model program that healthcare settings nationwide—from small community hospitals to large medical centers—may readily adapt and adopt in their own communities. Many healthcare systems are not currently prepared to meet the needs of this growing population, creating urgent demand for evidence-based approaches that can be adopted nationwide.
“We’re so thankful for the West Health Institute’s vision to expand this work,” says Cooper, who is also the Kessler Endowed Chair in Surgery and Public Health at BWH. “This dream project will ensure more patients have better function, cognition, and quality of life after hospitalization.”
“This is all about creating something powerful together,” says Bernacki. “We’re galvanizing the energy of frontline caregivers to achieve the best possible outcomes for older adults.”
About Mass General Brigham
Mass General Brigham is an integrated academic health care system, uniting great minds to solve the hardest problems in medicine for our communities and the world. Mass General Brigham connects a full continuum of care across a system of academic medical centers, community and specialty hospitals, a health insurance plan, physician networks, community health centers, home care, and long-term care services. Mass General Brigham is a nonprofit organization committed to patient care, research, teaching, and service to the community. In addition, Mass General Brigham is one of the nation’s leading biomedical research organizations with several Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals. For more information, please visit www.massgeneralbrigham.org.
About West Health
Solely funded by philanthropists Gary and Mary West, West Health is a family of nonprofit and nonpartisan organizations including the Gary and Mary West Foundation and Gary and Mary West Health Institute in San Diego, and the Gary and Mary West Health Policy Center in Washington, D.C. West Health is dedicated to lowering healthcare costs and enabling seniors to successfully age in place with access to high-quality, affordable health and support services that preserve and protect their dignity, quality of life and independence. Learn more at www.westhealth.org.
