Support that empowers us to do more

About The John A. Hartford Foundation

To prevent harm to older adults, improve health outcomes, and lower overall costs, health systems must adopt evidence-based models and practices that deliver better care to our rapidly aging population across all settings, including the home and community.

In partnership with expert innovators and health care leaders, John A. Hartford Foundation works to: 

• Develop large-scale approaches that help health systems transform care
• Operationalize the essential elements of good care, building on the Foundation’s investments in evidence-based models and best practices
• Better integrate community-based supports and services within the health system and across the continuum of care

Funded initiatives

The John A. Hartford Foundation Board of Trustees approved grants totalling $12,350,005 for six initiatives that will spread age-friendly care focused on what matters to older adults and family caregivers, including in emergency departments and home-based care, and through advocacy and a new rural project.

One initiative, Geriatric Emergency Department 4.0: Accreditation, Dissemination, Sustainability and Evaluation ($4,027,565 for 3 years), will make emergency department care more age-friendly for older adults through three grants. One of these grants will be awarded to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, enabling them to continue supporting the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative (GEDC) as it aims to reach 10,000 emergency department clinicians with educational resources, consultation and training.

About the Gary & Mary West Health Institute 

The mission of West Health is to lower healthcare costs to enable seniors to successfully age in place with access to high-quality, affordable health and support services that preserve and protect their dignity, quality of life, and independence.

Through a combination of outcomes-based funding, applied medical research and public policy, the Gary and Mary West Foundation, the West Health Institute, and West Health Policy Center are dedicated to lowering the cost of healthcare and advancing sustainable, high-quality delivery models with the potential to improve care for seniors and their families. 

The Gary and Mary West Foundation is one of only a handful of private foundations in the United States exclusively focused on addressing the needs of vulnerable seniors. Grants are awarded based on their potential to advance successful aging in America. West Health works to connect evidence-based best practices and models of care to smart public policy to ensure more widespread adoption.