New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health launched the Northwell Institute for Healthy Aging, a systemwide effort to help its 28 hospitals better coordinate and manage care for older adults .
The institute is built around the 4Ms framework — what matters most, medication, mentation and mobility, according to an Oct. 6 system news release.
“Today, most health systems treat aging as a series of separate problems — one doctor for your heart, another for memory, another expert after a fall — with little coordination between them,” Maria Torroella Carney, MD, executive director of the Northwell Institute for Healthy Aging, president of Glen Cove Hospital and system chief of geriatrics and palliative medicine, said in the release. “The Institute for Healthy Aging changes that by connecting experts in brain health, cardiac health, mobility and other specialties, while also addressing medication safety, emotional well-being, healthy lifestyle and caregiver support into one plan coordinated around the whole person, not just a diagnosis.”
In New York, more than 17% of the population is over 65, according to the release. Nationally, projections show that adults over 65 will outnumber children under 18 for the first time in the U.S.’s history by 2034.
