Qatar: HMC engages in age-friendly health systems program for older adults

Qatar: HMC engages in age-friendly health systems program for older adults

Doha: The Department of Geriatrics and Long-Term Care at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) teams 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 program 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” include (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 progress