HANYS Invites Health System Teams to Join Next New York Age-Friendly Health Systems Action Community Collaborative

The Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) is inviting health system teams to join the next New York Age-Friendly Health Systems Action Community and/or New York Geriatric Emergency Department (ED) Accreditation Collaborative, both beginning in January 2023. Health system teams can join one or both collaboratives via the New York Age-Friendly Action Community page or the Geriatric ED Accreditation, New York State Cohort page on the HANYS website.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) Age-Friendly Health Systems framework for care of older adults is referred to as 4Ms Care: What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility. When practiced together, 4Ms Care leads to improvements in patient experience scores, as well as quality outcomes such as hospital readmissions, ED utilization, and length of stay.

The American College of Emergency Physicians' (ACEP) Geriatric ED Accreditation promotes geriatric-focused education, policies, and protocols, as well as quality improvement projects to improve the care of older adults in the ED. This care model can decrease hospital admissions, 30-day hospital readmissions, and avoidable future ED visits.

HANYS provides project management, training, and technical assistance to ensure that teams achieve Age-Friendly recognition and EDs meet the criteria to become accredited, and it facilitates a free virtual collaborative learning environment where best practices for Age-Friendly health care can be shared.

Age-Friendly Health System participants may apply for a $10,000 stipend to support this work (up to 20 teams will be awarded stipends), and scholarships are available to Geriatric EDs new to accreditation (up to 18 hospitals will receive funding on a first-come, first-serve basis).

The benefits of joining one of these programs are:

• Redeploying and prioritizing existing health system resources to deliver high-quality, evidence-based care to older adults;
• Becoming recognized as an Age-Friendly Health System and/or becoming accredited as a Geriatric ED; and
• Improved patient and clinician experience and more efficient, lower-cost care.

Any questions may be directed to actioncommunity@hanys.org.

Contact: Amy Nelson, anelson@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8383 ext. 146