Burke Rehabilitation Joins Age-Friendly Health Systems Initiative

Burke Rehabilitation Hospital announced it has joined the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) to improve healthcare for older adults. Burke joins a national group of more than 3,000 health systems working to tailor care to older patients’ goals and preferences. The movement focuses on delivering safe, reliable, high-quality healthcare in every setting based on what matters most to older adults as individuals.

“Rehabilitation is the perfect setting to implement this initiative. We always focus on the patient’s goals and what matters to them, and our team of experts design the care based on those,” said Dr. Mooyeon Oh-Park, Chief Medical Officer, Senior Vice President at Burke Rehabilitation. “Many of the 4Ms practice were already in place at Burke. We were thankful that Montefiore Health System launched a health system-wide movement earlier this year, allowing us to assess gaps and further develop and enhance the care.”

Burke’s Age-Friendly Health System Steering Team includes Maeve Lopreiato, AVP of Quality, attending and resident physicians, nurses, inpatient and outpatient therapists, pharmacists, neuropsychologists, social workers, and patient experience. Burke has been implementing evidence-based interventions called the “4Ms”, the essential initial elements needed to provide older patients with better care. These elements are:

What Matters: Know and align care with each older adult’s specific health outcome goals and care preferences including, pharmacologic and operative treatment, discharge disposition, and more across care settings.

Medication: If medication is necessary, use Age-Friendly medications that do not interfere with What Matters to the older adult, Mobility, or Mentation across care settings.
Mentation: Prevent, identify, treat, and manage dementia, depression, and delirium across settings of care.
Mobility: Ensure that older adults move safely every day to maintain function and do What Matters.

Dr. Oh-Park concluded, “All older adults deserve safe, high-quality healthcare that is based on what matters most to them as individuals. We are proud to lead the way to ensure that every older adult who embarks on a rehabilitative journey at Burke receives the finest age-friendly care.” She recently presented “Journey to an Age-Friendly Health System” as a guest speaker at the November New York Society of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (NYSPMR) meeting.

The program can be viewed here: https://nyspmr.org/courses/journey-to-an-age-friendly-health-system-dr-oh-park/

About Burke Rehabilitation

Burke Rehabilitation is a nationally recognized and accredited not-for-profit healthcare organization that provides leading physical rehabilitation treatment, research and graduate medical education. Burke offers a full spectrum of inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services to improve the quality of life for people following an injury or surgery and those managing symptoms from chronic conditions. Recently ranked as a top rehabilitation hospital by US News & World Report, Burke Rehabilitation has the lowest readmission rates in the country and is the largest provider of stroke rehabilitation in New York. In addition to its hospital in White Plains, NY, Burke has 12 outpatient locations in Westchester County, the Hudson Valley, and the Bronx, with additional sites planned. Burke is a proud member of the Montefiore Health System. For more information, please visit www.burke.org.

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