Citation
Lynch, David H.; Mournighan, Kimberly; Dale, Maureen; Spangler, Hillary B.; Gotelli, John; Davis, Ronald; Felton, Kittra; Lingley-Brown, Kara; Busby-Whitehead, Jan; & Batsis, John A., et al. (2023). Establishing and Sustaining an Acute Care for Elders Unit: An Incremental Journey to Success. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 71(10), 3031-3039.Abstract
Acute Care for Elders (ACE) units reduce hospital-associated delirium, functional decline, and lengths of stay. However, establishing and sustaining such units have proven difficult. There are only 43 ACE units among the >3500 hospitals in the United States. This study describes an iterative quality improvement process, which allowed us to establish and sustain an ACE unit care model in a modern academic hospital. This continuous process was centered on implementing the key principles of the ACE unit model of care: patient-centered care assessments, medical care review, specialized prepared environment, early mobilization, physical therapy, and early planning for discharge to home. Quality of care and patient outcomes data for older adults admitted to our ACE unit includes mortality index (observed/expected) consistently <1 (FY22 = 0.86), 30-day readmission rate of <10% (FY22 9.31%), and length of stay index of ~1 (FY22 1.07). We describe how work on our ACE unit has led to hospital-wide initiatives, including dementia-friendly hospital certification. Our hope is that others can use this process to enhance the dissemination of the ACE unit model of care.URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jgs.18561Reference Type
Journal ArticleYear Published
2023Journal Title
Journal of the American Geriatrics SocietyAuthor(s)
Lynch, David H.Mournighan, Kimberly
Dale, Maureen
Spangler, Hillary B.
Gotelli, John
Davis, Ronald
Felton, Kittra
Lingley-Brown, Kara
Busby-Whitehead, Jan
Batsis, John A.
Hanson, Laura C.