Older adults are living and working longer, redefining later life, and enriching our communities. The future of health care requires a bold approach that values senior adults, addresses their unique needs, and provides them with the best care possible.
Improving how we care for older adults is a step in the right direction for hospitals and health systems. Delivering better care to seniors in every setting can help us achieve fewer avoidable hospital readmissions, more satisfied patients and families, and lower costs overall.
This is why MyCHN has joined Age-Friendly Health Systems. This initiative is led by The John A. Hartford Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in partnership with the American Hospital Association and the Catholic Health Association of the United States. It’s a movement to deliver safe, reliable, high-quality health care in every setting based on what matters most to older adults as individuals (see ihi.org/AgeFriendly).
What Makes MyCHN An Age-Friendly Health Care Clinic?
As part of the Age-Friendly Health Systems Action Community, MyCHN is testing and implementing a set of evidence-based interventions. These have been proven as the essential elements needed to provide senior patients with better care. We call them the “4Ms”:
- What Matters: Know and align care with each senior's specific health goals and care prerences, including, but not limited to end-of-life care and across care settings.
- Medication: If medication is necessary, use age-friendly medication that does not interfere with what matters to the patient, their mobitity, or mentation across care setings.
- Mentation: Prevent, identfy, treat, and manage dementia, depression, and delirium across care settings
- Mobility: Ensure older adults can move around safely daily to maintain funtion and do what matters
At MyCHN, the 4Ms are specified to each patient, but we have specific services that make this possible. For example, all medical, dental, and behavioral/mental health services are tailored to the health goals of our senior patients. Additionally, we have support groups that serve as a way to prevent, treat, and manage age-related mental health diseases. MyCHN providers take the time to address the needs and goals of patients, then prescribe any medication necessary. Finally, we have transportation services that allow patients to get to and from their appointments, and our home health services bring our amazing whole-person care to their doorstep.
Because of all these implementations, MyCHN has been recognized as an age-friendly health systems participant, and we are grateful for the opportunity.
We hope that as we implement and refine our processes, we’ll be able to provide more older adults with the care that they want, need, and deserve. If you are interested in becoming part of the movement, please go to ihi.org/AgeFriendly. Stay updated with how MyCHN cares for older adults in the community by following us on social media.
Tolulope Ayoola
Tolulope Ayoola is the creative marketing content writer at MyCHN. She graduated from the University of Houston-Downtown with a degree in Technical Communications. Her goal and mission is to make healthcare patient content more relatable and interesting to interact with. She combines her creative eye with her technical communication skills to create content for patients. Tolu's past work includes creating blogs, press releases, and social media content for different sectors. She enjoys spending time with her family, writing, and listening to music & podcasts.
