COOPERSTOWN — Bassett Healthcare Network was recently chosen to join a group of 30 health systems across the country in the Age-Friendly System-Wide Spread Collaborative led by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Participating health systems, which also include Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, Gracy Health in Atlanta, and Mount Sinai Health System in New York […]
COOPERSTOWN — Bassett Healthcare Network was recently chosen to join a group of 30 health systems across the country in the Age-Friendly System-Wide Spread Collaborative led by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Participating health systems, which also include Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, Gracy Health in Atlanta, and Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, will accelerate and spread adoption of evidence-based, high-quality care for older adults across all their sites and care settings. “Age-Friendly Health Systems are an influential framework for individualized, compassionate care for our 65 and older population, many with multiple chronic conditions,” Bassett Healthcare Network Director of Quality Laura Palada said in a news release. “We are privileged to have been chosen to participate in this collaborative effort to better serve one of our largest growing and most vulnerable populations of patients. It is also important to bring the perspective of rural health care to the conversation.” Age-Friendly Health Systems aim to follow an essential set of evidence-based practices, cause no harm, and align with what matters to older adults and their caregivers. The four essential elements of an Age-Friendly Health System are: • What Matters – know and align care with each older adult’s specific outcome goals and care preferences; • Medication – use age-friendly medication that do not interfere with what matters to the patient; • Mentation – prevent, identify, treat, and manage dementia, depression, and delirium across care settings; and • Mobility – ensure older adults move safely every day. Bassett Healthcare Network earned the initiative’s Committed to Care Excellence designation in 2023 after demonstrating reliable practice of those essential elements in all five of its hospitals. Now, during the 18-month collaboration, Bassett will build on its progress and test changes to ensure those elements are provided equitably as a standard practice as older adults receive care across its entire system. “We are honored to have Bassett Healthcare Network participating in this collaborative and applaud their dedication to equitably delivering age-friendly care as older adults and their family caregivers receive care across their practices, hospitals, and nursing homes,” Institute for Healthcare Improvement VP Leslie Pelton said. “This is an exciting and ambitious endeavor and a testament to the increasing importance of the Age-Friendly Health Systems movement as we prepare our health systems and workforce to provide excellent care to the growing older adult population.” Since 2018, the movement has recognized 3,907 care settings as age-friendly. Age-Friendly Health Systems is an initiative of the John A. Hartford Foundation and Institute for Healthcare Improvement in partnership with the American Hospital Association and the Catholic Health Association of the United States. Along with its five corporately affiliated hospitals, Bassett Healthcare network also includes school-based health centers, community-based health centers, and skilled-nursing facilities, and provides services to a 5,600-square-mile region in upstate New York.