Towards age-friendly hospitals and health services

In this paper, we reviewed rationale for an age-friendly hospital (or health service) and propose our framework in detail. In a rapidly aging society, development of policies and programs to optimize people's wellbeing and function as they age is an urgent issue. Most older persons extensively use health care. Unfortunately, current practices are unfriendly and may even add risks to the older person. Health-promotion interventions delivered in clinical settings and management of admissions have been shown to be associated with better outcomes. We developed Taiwan's Framework of Age-Friendly Hospitals to address the responsibility of health-care organizations and provide systematic guidance on hospital management policy, communication and services, physical environments, and care processes. This framework takes a life-course perspective and population approach and includes evaluation and quality improvement as an integral part of an age-friendly initiative. The diffusion and adaptation of age-friendly practices in hospitals can be monitored and its impact evaluated in the future. (c) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.