Cheyenne Regional Medical Center’s Behavioral Health Services Joins ‘Age-Friendly Health Systems’ Initiative

September 13, 2023

Cheyenne, WY—Cheyenne Regional Medical Center’s Behavioral Health Services announced today that its outpatient clinic has been recognized as “Age-Friendly.”

More than 2,700 hospitals, outpatient clinics and health systems have joined the “Age-Friendly Health Systems” initiative, which is led by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and The John A. Hartford Foundation.

Healthcare organizations that have received this recognition have shown that they are implementing evidence-based practices specifically designed to improve care for older adults.

CRMC’s designation was the result of work that the hospital’s behavioral health outpatient clinic did in partnership with the University of Wyoming’s Wyoming Center on Aging.

“Age-Friendly Health Systems is a movement to provide safe, reliable, high-quality healthcare based on what matters most to older adults as individuals,” said Greg O’Barr, administrator of CRMC’s Behavioral Health Services. “This initiative is an important part of our hospital and behavioral health outpatient clinic’s vision to provide every older adult with the best care possible. We look forward to both sharing our best practices with initiative participants and learning what’s working for others providing age-friendly care.”

The Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative is based on a series of practices known as the “4Ms,” which are focused on addressing four essential elements of care for older patients:

• 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 or with mobility or mentation across settings of care.
• Mentation: Prevent, identify, treat and manage dementia, depression and delirium across settings of care.
• Mobility: Ensure that older adults move safely every day to maintain function and to help them continue to do what matters to them.

“Older adults are living and working longer, redefining later life and enriching our communities,” O’Barr said. “This means that hospitals and healthcare systems need to take bold approaches that value older adults, address their unique needs and provide them with the best care possible.”

The Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative was launched in 2017. For more information, visit www.ihi.org/agefriendly.