West Health, a family of nonprofit organizations focused on healthcare and aging, announces its full support of the new Age-Friendly Hospital Measure just adopted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The new quality measure, which takes effect Jan. 1, will assess the care older adults receive in the hospital, operating room and emergency department. Hospitals will be required to report on how they address the following five key areas: 1. Eliciting patient health goals; 2. Responsibly managing medications; 3. Implementing frailty screening and intervention; 4. Assessing social vulnerability; 5. Designating leaders to ensure equitable delivery of age-friendly care. The reports will be publicly available through CMS’s Care Compare website. The Age Friendly Hospital Measure also incorporates important aspects of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation (GEDA) framework. It calls for hospitals to establish protocols for moving older patients out of the emergency department within eight hours of arrival or three hours of the decision to admit. West Health and The John A. Hartford Foundation provided financial support and foundational work for GEDA. West Health’s CEO and Chair Shelley Lyford commented, “The Age Friendly Hospital Measure will prove an important step toward improving hospital care for America’s seniors and advancing the age-friendly movement across all of healthcare and society. Everyone benefits from measures like these that are specific, evidence-based and person-centered.” West Health has been working to improve care and public policy as it relates to older adults for more than 15 years. The organization spearheaded a major initiative to expand the availability of geriatric emergency departments (GEDs) throughout the U.S., fueled an effort for states to develop their own multisector plan for aging, and worked to make healthcare more affordable and responsive to the needs of older adults. 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 to enable 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 westhealth.org and follow @westhealth.
