The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has chosen The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth Houston) to be part of the Age-Friendly System-Wide Spread Collaborative. This pioneering collaborative, steered by the IHI, brings together 30 U.S. health systems with the aim of accelerating and spreading the adoption of evidence-based, high-quality care for older adults across all sites and care settings.
This collaborative is a recent endeavor by the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative, which advocates for four evidence-based elements of high-quality care known as the 4Ms: What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility. UTHealth Houston also received the initiative’s Committed to Care Excellence designation after demonstrating reliable practice of the 4Ms.
Over an 18-month period in this collaborative, UTHealth Houston will build on its progress and test changes to ensure that the 4Ms are provided equitably as a standard practice for older adults receiving care across its entire system. All participating teams in the collaborative will learn from each other and expert faculty, and be among the first health systems to achieve a new ambitious IHI recognition for system-wide spread of age-friendly care.
“We are expanding our commitment to providing evidence-based care for our patients,” said Holly Holmes, MD, director of the Joan and Stanford Alexander Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. “The Age-Friendly Systems-Wide Spread Collaborative will give us the tools we need to provide the highest standard of care to every older adult at every care interaction.”
Leslie Pelton, MPA, vice president at IHI praised UTHealth Houston's participation in this collaborative and their dedication to delivering age-friendly care equitably as older adults receive care across their practices, hospitals, and nursing homes.
Since 2018, this movement has recognized 3,907 care settings as Age-Friendly, benefiting 3.29 million older adults who have received age-friendly care centered around what matters to them and their families. The Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative is a partnership between The John A. Hartford Foundation and IHI, the American Hospital Association, and the Catholic Health Association of the United States.
UTHealth Houston was established in 1972 by The University of Texas System Board of Regents as Texas’ resource for health care education, innovation, scientific discovery, and excellence in patient care.
