Leveraging Teams to Implement Age-Friendly Health Systems Across Settings in a Major Academic Medical Center

To describe implementation strategies, successes, and challenges of spreading Age-Friendly Health Systems (AFHS) practices across diverse clinical settings within a large academic medical center focusing on the 4Ms (What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility).

We engaged five clinical sites across three health systems in an 18-month national AFHS System-Wide Spread Collaborative. Interprofessional teams conducted Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles, held weekly meetings, and tracked documentation and actions on the 4Ms via chart reviews.

Charts were reviewed beginning in April 2024. On average, 49% of patients were assessed on all 4Ms, and 33% had all 4Ms acted upon. Key facilitators to implementation included leadership support, leveraging the electronic health record (EHR), and staff education. Challenges included workflow variability by site and limited EHR capabilities.

Multisite AFHS implementation is feasible, but requires local adaptation and leadership engagement. Standardized documentation and tools are essential for sustainability, and more work is needed to align with the upcoming Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services quality measures.