Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

BERMUDA RUN – Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Davie Medical Center has been recognized as an Age-Friendly Health System – Committed to Care Excellence, by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI).
As part of the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative, 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,​ are helping hospitals and other care settings implement a set of evidence-based interventions designed to improve care for older adults.
The interventions can be tested and adapted by participating in what are called Age-Friendly Health Systems Action Communities. These are collaborative entities comprised of health care teams from all over the country committed to sharing data and learning. All teams strive toward reliably implementing best practices across emergency departments, intensive care units, medical-surgical units, general wards, and primary and specialty care settings.
Davie Medical Center joins more than 100 hospitals and health systems working to make consistent and high quality care for older adults even more aligned with the goals and preferences of their patients.
“Davie Medical Center has always been on the forefront of patient care. We look forward to both sharing our best practices and learning what’s working for others,” said Chad Brown, president of Davie Medical Center. “The Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative is an important part of our overarching vision to provide every patient with the best care possible.”
The initiative is based on a series of practices focused on addressing four essential elements of care for older patients:
What Matters: Know and align care with each older adult’s specific health outcome goals and preferences across care settings, including end-of-life care.
Medication: If medication is necessary, use age-friendly medications that do not interfere with what matters to the older adult, their mobility, or mentation across settings of care.
Mentation: Prevent, identify, treat, and manage dementia, depression, and delirium across settings of care.​
Mobility: Ensure that older adults move safely every day in order to maintain function and do what matters to them.
“As a geriatrician, I am proud to be part of a system that is an accredited Age-Friendly Health System, which promotes focus on individualized, evidence-based care of older adults,” said Caitlin Jones, M.D., assistant professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine. “Receiving this acknowledgement has been a team effort, and I am so appreciative of everyone who has been involved in this initiative.”
For more information, visit www.ihi.org/agefriendly.