​This spring, five health systems in the US are embarking on an initiative​ to discover how they can reliably deliver the best care to older adults. It’s not that they’re failing to provide high-quality care now — far from it. But even at exemplar institutions, best practices for older or elderly patients aren’t always top of mind, nor do practitioners always know how they might do things differently. Now, a small group of health systems is about to test some new, evidenced-based interventions that promise to model for the rest of the industry the types of changes needed.

IHI has the fortunate role of guiding this initiative for the next few years, thanks to support from The John A. Hartford Foundation. The Foundation has been pursuing ideal care for older patients for a while now, and has concluded that age-friendly health care should focus on four high-level goals: What Matters, Mobility, Medications, and Mentation.

We’d like you to learn what’s in store and consider your own improvement opportunities on this episode of WIHI, Creating Age-Friendly Health Systems.