JHF Aging Programs Collaborate to Bring Age-Friendly Health Systems to PA's Nursing Homes

Two leading Pennsylvania aging initiatives are partnering to enhance the quality of care for older adults in the state's nursing homes. The PA Teaching Nursing Home Collaborative and PA Long-Term Care Learning Network are featuring the Age-Friendly Health Systems '4Ms' framework through a series of educational webinars during the first quarter of 2025.

The '4Ms' framework focuses on four essential elements of care: “What Matters”, “Medication”, “Mentation”, and “Mobility”. These evidence-based components are designed to improve the quality of care for older adults across healthcare settings, including nursing homes. Nearly 100 nursing facilities have already participated in the webinar series, which is part of the PA Department of Health's quality incentive program.

“Knowing how busy nursing home clinicians and administrators are, this collaboration provided us with an excellent and efficient way to bring these two projects together,” said Nancy Zionts, Chief Program and Strategy Officer of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation.

Through March of this year, the Learning Network’s weekly webinars are focused on the Age-Friendly Health Systems 4Ms framework, with two dedicated webinars for each of the 4Ms. These sessions showcase real-world implementation strategies and feature case studies from nursing home professionals who have successfully integrated these improvements into their facilities. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement Age-Friendly Health Systems team and Pennsylvania Long-Term Care Resiliency, Infrastructure Supports, and Empowerment (RISE) partners are also supporting nursing homes in Pennsylvania who decide to implement the 4Ms.

Nursing homes that complete the webinar series will be eligible to seek recognition as Age-Friendly Health Systems Level I participants through the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Nursing homes interested in joining the PA Teaching Nursing Home Collaborative are encouraged to participate in this quality improvement initiative. For more information about the Age-Friendly Health Systems movement, click here.