Trustees Have an Important Role in Age-Friendly Care that Benefits All Patients

An unswerving commitment age-friendly quality and patient safety principles has been shown to improve outcomes not only for older patients, but also for patients of all ages. That was among the key takeaways from “Leading the Charge for Enhanced Patient Safety,” a panel discussion for hospital and health system trustees hosted by the American Hospital Association at its 2025 Annual Membership Meeting May 4 in Washington, D.C.

Before a packed room, speakers representing the health spectrum from boardroom to operating room shared actions their organizations have taken to flow quality and patient safety into the very oxygen of their daily operations — especially for older patients — and discussed how board members can help support the process.

New Jersey-based Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH), for example, conducts its quality and safety committee meetings just prior to each full board meeting so trustees can better monitor and guide the committee’s progress.

“That kind of focus and emphasis we put on quality and safety really, you know, bubbles up. It becomes part of our culture and part of what we do every single day,” said Shawn Reynolds, chair of the HMH Hospitals Corporation Board.

HMH is among a number of age-friendly health systems that have adopted a set of four evidence-based elements of high-quality care, known as the “4Ms,” for the care of older adults in its system.

“Prioritizing quality and safety ultimately leads to better outcomes for patients, which leads to better financial outcomes,” said Jose Azar, executive vice president and chief quality officer at HMH. “The way the board and the executive team work together, that prioritization has really made a difference [not only] for the age-friendly health system, but also for [patient] safety in general.”

Mass General Brigham (MGB), a not-for-profit integrated health care system that engages in medical research, teaching and patient care, has also explored ways to improve care for older adults. Its electronic health record system can now flag for potentially inappropriate medications, streamline nursing orders and help screen for delirium prevention.

Zara Cooper, M.D., professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and director and founder of the Center for Geriatric Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told the audience that the steps taken to advance health for senior patients can often apply more broadly to all patients. “If we think about isolation, complex care and depression, this is where the rubber meets the road,” said Cooper. “And if we can figure out how to take care of this population, then it's going to raise the tide for everybody.”

Cooper also serves on the board of MGB and reminded her fellow trustees in the room of the critical importance of their leadership. “If you can set the pace and set the stage and set the priorities to help us do the right thing, it will continue to make tremendous change,” she said.

The panel discussion was framed against the backdrop of the AHA’s Patient Safety Initiative, a collaborative, data-driven effort that gives hospitals and health systems a strong voice in the national conversation around health care safety and telling the hospital and health system patient safety story.

Moderator Marie Cleary Fishman, AHA’s vice president of clinical quality, summed it up this way: “Age-friendly [care] helps us live out patient safety and helps to be a model for care that we can all use.”