Hamad Medical Corporation engages in age-friendly health systems programme to improve care for older adults: Qatar

Hamad Medical Corporation engages in age-friendly health systems programme to improve care for older adults: Qatar

The Department of Geriatrics and Long-Term Care at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has teamed up with Hamad Healthcare Quality Institute (HHQI) and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) to implement an evidence-based approach designed to promote age-friendly care that addresses the unique needs and wants of older adults.

Through the implementation of an age-friendly health system, the programme aims to support a better quality of life for older adults in Qatar.

Becoming an age-friendly health system entails reliably providing a set of four evidence-based elements of high-quality care, known as the ‘4Ms’ to all older adults in a system.

The ‘4Ms’ are (1) What Matters - recognition of older adult’s specific care preferences; (2) Medication - reviewing medication holistically from a more age-friendly perspective; (3) Mentation - prevent, identify, treat, and manage dementia, depression, and delirium across settings of care; (4) Mobility - encouraging daily movement in older adults to help them maintain function.

Several workshops were recently convened with leading members from the Geriatric and Long-Term care team, along with expert enablers from HHQI and IHI to develop the implementation of an Age-Friendly Health System at HMC.Dr Abdulla Al Ansari, chief medical Officer at HMC said he was pleased to see the significant