Healthcare for the Aging Citizen and the Aging Citizen for Healthcare: Involving Patient Advisors in Elder-Friendly Care Improvement

Abstract

With an aging population and a healthcare system that is overly reliant on providing expensive and sometimes problematic hospital-based care for older Canadians, driving improvements that promote elder-friendly care has never been more critical. The Acute Care for Elders (ACE) Strategy at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital is the focus of a pan-Canadian collaborative delivered by the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement in partnership with the Canadian Frailty Network. The intent is to spread the ACE Strategy's elder-friendly models of care and practices to 18 participating healthcare delivery organizations. A key element of the ACE Collaborative is the inclusion of patient advisors as members of the 18 teams. This article considers the development of elder-friendly care models and practices, with lessons for patient advisors and organizations on the necessary skill-mix, as well as lessons for providers and managers on ways to more effectively engage patient advisors in health system improvement to better serve an aging population.