Baylor Medicine earns age-friendly healthcare designation

Baylor Medicine, the multidisciplinary clinical practice of Baylor College of Medicine, has been recognized as part of the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and its partners. The recognition establishes Baylor College of Medicine clinics as leaders in the growing movement committed to care of older adults.

Baylor healthcare clinics earning the designation include the Baylor Family Medicine Clinic – Texas Medical Center, Upper Kirby and River Oaks locations, the Baylor Medicine General Internal Medicine Clinic and Baylor Medicine Stratos Integrated Health, a membership-based primary and multidisciplinary care clinic. Medical providers and nursing leaders in the five clinics have worked together to champion this cause for age-friendly care.

Healthcare providers recognized through the initiative show commitment to following the 4Ms of the Age-Friendly Health System, which include:

What Matters: Know and align care with each older adult’s specific health outcome goals and care preferences including, but not limited to, end-of-life care, and across settings of care.

Medication: If medication is necessary, use age-friendly medications that do not interfere with what matters to the older adult, mobility or mentation.

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.

Faculty of Baylor Medicine collaborate with a large network of community-based organizations, academic institutions and primary care health systems in the Southeast Texas Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program (SETxGWEP) to promote the principles of healthy aging and competent interprofessional geriatric care. One of the goals of this program is to partner with clinical care partners to make the care provided reliably age-friendly.

“I feel so fortunate to work with the outstanding faculty in Baylor Medicine to achieve the age-friendly designation,” said Dr. Kathryn Agarwal, associate director for clinical integration with SETxGWEP and assistant professor of medicine – geriatrics at Baylor. “All older adults deserve safe, high-quality healthcare that is based on what matters to them as individuals and delivered reliably in every setting.”

The Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative is a partnership of the Institute for HealthCare Improvement, the John A. Hartford Foundation, American Hospital Association and Catholic Health Association of the United States.