San Gabriel Valley VA Clinic Honored as an Age-Friendly Health System
The Veteran population in the U.S. is growing older, and quickly. In 1970, only 7.2% of Veterans were 65 and older, but as of 2020, that number had climbed to 49%, or 8.1 million American Veterans, according to the Census Bureau.
With an increasingly older Veteran population, Age-Friendly healthcare has become a priority for VA.
At the San Gabriel Valley (SGV) VA Clinic in Arcadia, Calif., the team’s commitment to meeting the needs of older Veterans recently earned them the distinction of being named an Age-Friendly Health System – Committed to Care Excellence.
The John A. Hartford Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), in partnership with the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the Catholic Health Association of the US (CHA), are the groups that make this designation for health systems all across the country.
“This honor demonstrates the commitment of the San Gabriel Valley VA Clinic team in caring for an aging Veteran population,” said Alan Trinh, acting executive director, clinical care services for VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. “Older Veterans deserve to have their individual needs and priorities considered by their clinicians in all healthcare decisions. This clinic is a shining example of how to acknowledge what matters to each Veteran who entrusts us with their care.”
Welcoming Older Veterans
At the SGV VA Clinic, 76-year-old Army Veteran Gerald Ewing has been a patient for about eight months.
“I felt completely welcomed there,” he said. “It’s not like going to any other doctor’s office.” One of his providers is Dr. Meghana Frenchman, medical director for the clinic, who led the charge to earn the Age-Friendly honor.
When Frenchman came to the SGV clinic and realized it had a large population of older Veterans, she wanted to make sure the team was doing everything they could to meet their needs.
“I reached out to the leadership in geriatrics and asked, ‘what are some things we could be doing here?,’” she said. They told her about the Age-Friendly designation, and she rallied her team and set out to earn it.
To do so, the team implemented what’s known as the 4Ms:
- “What Matters: Know and align care with each older Veteran's specific health outcome goals and care preferences including, but not limited to, end-of-life care, and across settings of care.
- Medication: If medication is necessary, use Age-Friendly medications that do not interfere with what matters to the older Veteran, mobility or mentation across settings of care.
- Mentation (Mind): Prevent, identify, treat, and manage dementia, depression and delirium across settings of care.
- Mobility: Ensure that older Veterans move safely every day to maintain function and do what matters.”
Other facilities that have earned the designation in Greater Los Angeles include the Sepulveda Community Living Center, West Los Angeles VA Medical Center Community Living Center and West Los Angeles VA Medical Center Geriatrics Outpatient Clinic.
In March 2020, VA’s department of Geriatrics and Extended Care (GEC) announced its aim for VA to become the largest integrated healthcare system in the U.S. to be recognized by IHI as Age-Friendly.
Coming Together to Care for Heroes
The designation at the SGV clinic was a team effort between nurses, primary care providers and social workers, said Frenchman. “It became something we all were motivated to do together.”
The importance of Age-Friendly care will continue to be a focus for the team moving forward.
“I think it’s been important to address what matters to our Veterans and to personalize their care,” said Frenchman, adding that VA gives doctors more time with their patients than private facilities typically do.
Ewing agrees that at the SGV clinic he gets more time with his care team than he did with another agency. “At my first visit, Dr. Frenchman and I had a chat for really quite some time,” said Ewing. “That’s really unusual. She’s really nice and seems to always be there.”
Asking Veterans about their priorities as part of the 4Ms is incredibly important, said Dr. Frenchman, and offers an example of one Veteran in his 70s who said his goal was to be stable enough to climb the bleachers at his grandchild’s track meet.
“I think they take everything into consideration,” said Ewing of his own experience with the team. “I have no complaints.”