Scaling and spreading age-friendly care: Early lessons from the VA National Age-Friendly Action Community

The Age-Friendly Health System (AFHS) initiative seeks to improve care for older adults through assessing and acting on the 4Ms (What Matters, Medication, Mentation, Mobility). The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) joined the initiative in 2020, and from 2022 to 2023, VA led its first Age-Friendly Action Community, a 7-month online educational series to teach clinicians about implementing the 4Ms across VA care settings.

The VA Action Community was designed to spread awareness about Age-Friendly care for older Veterans, improve interprofessional team knowledge for providing care guided by the 4Ms, and support AFHS implementation across multiple care settings. The VA Action Community included online synchronous webinars, Community of Practice coaching calls, and office hours. A learner experience questionnaire was administered at the completion of the Action Community.

Totally 186 care teams enrolled in the VA Action Community, representing 78/171 (45.6%) VA medical centers (VAMCs), across 36 US states and 20 types of care settings. Participants reported high rates of satisfaction and confidence in their ability to apply the knowledge and skills learned. Overall, 58 Action Community teams earned Level 1, Participant recognition, and 43 teams also earned Level 2, Committed to Care Excellence recognition from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

The VA Action Community facilitated learning about the 4Ms, supported interprofessional teams in earning AFHS recognition, and offers a promising model for spreading AFHS in other large health systems. Further work is underway to evaluate the impact of this educational experience on clinical process and outcomes measures.