CMS Age Friendly Hospital Measure: Resources for Emergency Departments

On August 1, 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Age-Friendly Hospital Measure that will take effect January 1, 2025. The measure, developed in collaboration with the American College of Surgeons (ACS) , the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) , and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) , aims to improve older adult patient care and outcomes.

The Age Friendly Hospital Measure targets five domains to prioritize older adults’ healthcare needs:

1. Eliciting patient healthcare goals
2. Responsible medication management
3. Frailty screening and intervention
4. Social vulnerability
5. Age-friendly care leadership

The emergency department (ED) plays an important role in ensuring your hospital meets the Age-Friendly Hospital measure. Below we highlight key resources relevant to each domain from our resource library and our collaborators.

Through GEDC membership, we offer consulting services to help hospitals and healthcare systems align with the Age-Friendly Hospital Measure. Our team of experts assists your organization in integrating the 4Ms framework—What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility—into your clinical care practices.

And join us on November 18th at 3:00PM EST for an expert panel discussion in collaboration with ACEP on the new CMS Hospital Measure and how GEDA Accrediation and GEDC resources can help your hospital reach your goals.

Domain 1: Eliciting Patient Healthcare Goals

Determining the patients’ priorities is essential to providing the right care. In the ED this means having context-driven, direct conversations with your patient and learning what matters. The resources below give insight into this domain, and how to elicit goals of care explore the resources below:

Domain 2: Responsible Medication Management

Medication issues in older patients in the ED are among the most challenging and important areas of their management. In this era of chronic disease management, most older people come to the ED already taking five or more medications. Screening for high-risk medications is an essential part of good care of older adults coming to your ED. Some resources are below, and a new Toolkit for Medication Management is on the way.

E-Learning for Domain 2

Domain 3: Frailty Screening and Intervention

Older adults arriving in the emergency department are typically complex, with atypical presentations of disease related to normal changes in aging. Early detection of issues such as cognitive impairment, risks related to mobility, and frailty is advantageous to the emergency department care team’s plan for care, and results in improved patient experience.

This website is filled with resources on these topics. Below are a few high-value educational resources, but we encourage you to browse further.

E-Learning for Domain 3

The following e-learning courses are accredited for AMA and ANCC continuing education and cover key areas of geriatric emergency care.

Domain 4: Social Vulnerability

This domain ensures that the ED is aware of the social vulnerability of older adults and that the ED is sometimes the best positioned to intervene to identify and address social issues. The Educational Development Center has developed a series of educational modules alongside a quality improvement implementation toolkit that can be applied in any emergency department to meet this domain.

The EDC also supports emergency departments to adapt their toolkit to suit their organization’s unique needs. When you download the toolkit, you will receive more details.

E-Learning for Domain 4

Domain 5: Age-Friendly Care Leadership

This domain seeks to ensure consistent quality of care for older adults through the identification of a clinical champion to ensure compliance with all components of geriatric friendly care. In the case of many geriatric EDs this includes a GEM Nurse role and/or and Physician champion. To read more about GEM Nurses, see below.