Hospital Joins New Age-Friendly Effort

Cary Medical Center in Maine has joined an initiative to improve healthcare for older adults, contributing to a goal of realizing 20 percent age-friendly U.S. hospitals and health systems this year, reports The County . Partner organizations in the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative are helping hospitals and other care settings deploy evidence-based interventions, which can be tested and adapted by participating in Age-Friendly Health Systems Action Communities. Such communities are collaborative entities made up of healthcare teams across the nation committed to sharing data and cooperative learning. The program is founded on practices designed to provide four essential elements, including knowledge and alignment of care with each older adult's health outcome goals and care preferences; use of age-friendly medication that does not interfere with the other three elements; mentation, or preventing, identifying, treating, and managing dementia, depression, and delirium across care settings; and guarantees of mobility of older adults every day in order to maintain function. Cary Medical Center joins more than 100 health systems participating in the initiative. Cary CEO Kris Doody said the initiative "is an important part of our overarching vision to provide every older adult with the best care possible."