New Intermountain Health Program Focuses on Serving Elderly Patients

Elderly patients are the focus of a new Intermountain Health Good Samaritan Hospital Acute Care for the Elderly, or ACE, in Lafayette, Colo.

According to the Population Reference Bureau, the number of Americans aged 65 and older is projected to increase by 47% by 2050. The aim for programs like ACE is to help people regain their health during and after a hospital stay.

Good Samaritan Hospital cares for a large population of older adults. “We really felt like this was a good opportunity to serve that population and the community that surround us,” said Mary Cisneros, RN, nurse manager for the new program. “It’s also not something that is offered at surrounding hospitals. It sets us apart.”

A visit to this unit will show 30 patient rooms at the end of one hospital floor all decked out for people over 70. Twice a day, you will see patients walking about, attending arts and crafts activities, playing the piano, or doing puzzles. The idea behind all the motion is to help them be active and engaged rather than sitting quietly, alone, in their patient rooms.

The program is built on a few specific concepts and roles.

For more activity, the hospital created a mobility tech position. This is a patient care tech or a certified nurse assistant who has additional training to care for elderly patients. Working seven days a week, mobility techs will help patients with walking and other therapeutic activities.

Another element is the use of interdisciplinary rounds, which is a daily gathering of different caregivers who can talk about all aspects of the person’s care. “We are involving all these other disciplines to make sure that we are meeting all of the needs of the patient in a timely fashion,” Cisneros said.

The people involved in the daily rounds come from pharmacy, physical medicine and rehabilitation, case management, dietary and nurses. Cisneros and two colleagues are becoming certified in a course called “Improving Care of Health System Elders,” and they will share that information with all who see patients in this unit.

Through Good Samaritan’s volunteer program, the unit will also have activities twice each day.

“Again, this is an opportunity to engage the patients cognitively and socially and another opportunity for increased mobility for them,” Cisneros said.

In this unit, patients’ conditions are such that they still require inpatient hospital care, and they will be seen by a physician every day. The physician will decide when the patients are medically ready to leave the hospital.

Until then, when patients are able, Cisneros hopes to keep them engaged and moving.

“Providing all of these services should decrease the length of the hospital stay for patients,” she said. It also should increase the ability for patients to go home after their hospital stay rather than to a long-term rehabilitation or skilled nursing facility. Similar programs also have lowered healthcare costs and reduced the likelihood that a patient could be readmitted to the hospital later.

While this new focus on care for elderly patients is an investment of time and resources for the hospital, that doesn’t mean patients will see a higher bill because of it, Cisneros said. The hospital invested in it because it is the right thing to do to get the best outcomes for patients.

Cisneros anticipates having about 15 to 20 patients on average in the program. There are guidelines to follow that dictate who can be admitted to the unit: Anyone 70 years and older with a diagnosis that qualifies them to be hospitalized in a medical unit level of care. Patients who need intensive care or monitoring for a heart condition would not be eligible.

Cisneros and other caregivers recently hosted an open house to share information about the program and show off changes made to the rooms. While hospital rooms tend to be “elder friendly,” Cisneros said they purchased large digital clocks and stocked each room with necessary equipment geriatric patients often need like walking gate belts and sit-to-stand aids.

The team also collected items including arts and crafts supplies, puzzles, knitting and crocheting materials, coloring books, and a small portable piano to share with patients in the unit.

Learn more about Intermountain Health Good Samaritan Hospital.

About Intermountain Health

Headquartered in Utah with locations in six states and additional operations across the western U.S., Intermountain Health is a not-for-profit system of 34 hospitals, approximately 400 clinics, medical groups with some 4,600 employed physicians and advanced care providers, a health plans division called Select Health with more than one million members, and other health services. Helping people live the healthiest lives possible, Intermountain is committed to improving community health and is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes at sustainable costs. For up-to-date information and announcements, please see the Intermountain Health newsroom at https://intermountainhealthcare.org/news.