AdventHealth Hendersonville Participates in National Age-Friendly Health Systems Initiative

N.C., January 28, 2020 — AdventHealth Hendersonville Participates in National

Age-Friendly Health Systems Initiative

HENDERSONVILLE, NC, January 28, 2020 – AdventHealth Hendersonville announced today that it is part of a movement to improve health care for older adults, contributing to a goal of 20 percent of U.S. hospitals and health systems becoming age-friendly by 2020. AdventHealth Hendersonville is the first health system in North Carolina to be designated as an Age-Friendly Health Systems Initiative Participant.

As part of the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative, The John A. Hartford Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), in partnership with the American Hospital Association and the Catholic Health Association of the United States, are helping hospitals and other care settings implement a set of evidence-based interventions specifically designed to improve care for older adults.

The interventions can be tested and adapted by participating in what are called Age-Friendly Health Systems Action Communities. These are collaborative entities comprising health care teams from all over the country who are committed to sharing data and learning together. All teams strive to reliably implement best practices across emergency departments, intensive care units, medical-surgical units, general wards, and primary and specialty care settings.

AdventHealth Hendersonville now joins more than 100 health systems working to make care for older adults even more tailored to patients’ goals and preferences and consistently high-quality.

AdventHealth Hendersonville Vice President of Physician Services, Christy Sneller, explains, “As part of serving our community we continually assess the population we are serving.Henderson County is experiencing substantial growth in the retirement population with more than a quarter of our population aged 65 or older. We are also seeing about one-fifth of the Buncombe County population in this age range.”

She adds, “This initiative touches every patient – if not today, in the future, as we are all patients and/or caregivers. This initiative has allowed AdventHealth to expand the scope of our mission of Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ, ensuring older adults, families, and caregivers are engaged and collaborative with the health care team.”

The Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative is based on a series of practices 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, 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 in order to maintain function and do What Matters.

Board-certified geriatrician Anna Hicks, MD, is the Physician Champion for Age-Friendly Initiatives at AdventHealth Hendersonville. “As a geriatrician, I am trained in the best practices for older adults and bring that to our community,” Dr. Hicks says. “This local participation is about tying the practices into whole-person care, not just medical care, as we are looking at all social determinants for health and wellness. Our goal with this care initiative is for people who are older to have a say in their health care, and to help them know they have value and are valued by people in their community.”

The Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative was launched in 2017 by The John A. Hartford Foundation and IHI with a commitment to make 20 percent of hospitals and health systems in the United States age-friendly by 2020.

For more information, visit AdventHealthNC.com/Age-Friendly.

About AdventHealth Hendersonville: Founded in 1910, AdventHealth Hendersonville, formerly Park Ridge Health, is dedicated to meeting the health care needs of our growing communities, providing high-quality, compassionate, not-for-profit care in a Christian environment.

In 1984, AdventHealth Hendersonville became a member of Adventist Health System. With a sacred mission of Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ, AdventHealth is a connected system of care for every stage of life and health. More than 80,000 skilled and compassionate caregivers in physician practices, hospitals, outpatient clinics, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies and hospice centers provide individualized, wholistic care. A shared vision, common values, focus on whole-person health and a commitment to making communities healthier unify the system's nearly 50 hospital campuses and hundreds of care sites in diverse markets throughout almost a dozen states.

Leading the way in many medical firsts for the region, AdventHealth Hendersonville is the first hospital in Western North Carolina to earn The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval^® for five orthopedic specialties including Spine Surgery, Total Ankle Replacement, Total Hip Replacement, Total Knee Replacement and Total Shoulder Replacement. It is also the first to use the Mazor X™ and Navio™ Robotic Guidance Platforms. AdventHealth Hendersonville consistently earns national ranking for its commitment to patient safety, earning seven consecutive “A” grades in Leapfrog Group’s Safety Grade survey and the 2019 Award for Excellence in Patient Safety Across the Board from Premier, Inc.

AdventHealth Hendersonville includes cardiac care and rehabilitation, emergency services, nationally awarded cancer care, state-of-the-art surgical care, full-service orthopedic care, an award-winning labor and delivery experience, and a full range of imaging services to help people across our region experience whole health. For more information about AdventHealth Hendersonville or to find a physician, please visit AdventHealthNC.com or call Call855-774-LIFE (5433).