Early clinical and quality impacts of the Age‐Friendly Health System in a Veterans Affairs skilled nursing facility

Abstract Background Skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) are an ideal setting to implement the Age‐Friendly Health System (AFHS) approach, an initiative by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) centered on the 4Ms: what matters, mobility, mentation, and medication. AFHS implementation has not been well studied in SNFs. Methods A 112‐bed VA SNF implemented a facility‐wide AFHS initiative including the following: (1) participating in a national IHI Age‐Friendly Action Community; (2) establishing an AFHS workgroup centered on the 4Ms; (3) identifying meaningful clinical tools and frameworks for capturing each M; and (4) developing sustainment methods. Clinical (life‐sustaining treatment, falls, disruptive behaviors, and medication deprescribing) and quality outcomes (rehospitalization, emergency department utilization, and discharge to the community) in addition to patient satisfaction were compared pre‐ and post‐AFHS implementation (bed days of care BDOC 17413) to post‐implementation (BDOC 20880). Results Clinical outcomes demonstrated improvements in the 4Ms, including: (1) what matters: 14% increase in life‐sustaining treatment documentation (82%–96%; p < 0.01); (2) mobility: reduction in fall rate by 34% (8.15 falls/1000 BDOC to 5.41; p < 0.01); (3) mentation: decrease in disruptive behavior reporting system (DBRS) by 62% (5.11 DBRS/1000 BDOC to 1.96; p = 0.04); (4) medications: 53% increase in average potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) deprescribing (0.38–0.80 interventions/patient; p < 0.01). Quality outcomes improved including rehospitalization (25.6%–17.9%) and emergency department utilization (5.3%–2.8%) within 30 days of admission. Patient satisfaction scores improved from a mean of 77.2 ( n = 31, scale 1–100) to 81.3 ( n = 42). Conclusions Implementation of the AFHS initiative in a SNF was associated with improved clinical and quality outcomes and patient satisfaction. We describe here a sustainable, interprofessional approach to implementing the AFHS in a SNF.