Enhancing Age-Friendly Health System 4 Ms Model of Care
The Age-Friendly Health System (AFHS) offers an evidence-based model of care, centering on the 4Ms: What Matters Most (to the patient), Medication, Mentation, and Mobility. Following implementation of the AFHS 4Ms framework, Aurora Medical Center Grafton’s Med Surg 3 Oncology unit initiated a process improvement project to improve the assessment of What Matters Most and promote early mobility to enhance the care provided to older adults. The process improvement project increased the number of patients evaluated for What Matters most to them. Emphasizing and educating staff about mobility assessment and promoting early mobility led to improved patient mobility metrics. In the end, the initiative reduced the length of stay in the hospital and enabled patients to return home to what matters most to them.