A young health visitor explaining a senior woman how to take medicine and pills.

Community Health Accreditation Partner (CHAP) Launches Age-Friendly Care at Home Certification with Accreditation

CHAP Age-Friendly Care at Home

ARLINGTON, VA — April 3, 2023 – Community Health Accreditation Partner (CHAP) is pleased to announce that as of today, home health and hospice providers have the option to achieve a Certification for Age-Friendly Care at Home, in addition to their CHAP Accreditation. This new certification is made possible through CHAP’s collaboration with the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative of The John A. Hartford Foundation (JAHF) and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), in partnership with the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHA).

The CHAP site visitor can now validate an organization’s integration and application of the Age-Friendly Health Systems 4Ms Framework to individualize care and meet the needs of older adults. The 4Ms Framework includes the following:

  • What Matters: Aligning care with older adults’ specific health goals and care preferences.
  • Medication: Optimizing medication use to avoid harm and improve quality of life.
  • Mentation: Addressing conditions such as dementia, depression, and delirium.
  • Mobility: Ensuring that older adults move safely every day to maintain function and independence.

4Ms Foundation of Age-Friendly Care

This framework has been shown to reduce the cost of care, improve clinician retention and satisfaction, and improve patient outcomes. Home health and hospice providers who achieve this certification will demonstrate their commitment to providing high-quality, age-friendly care to their patients.

 To earn the certification,  providers will need to follow the CHAP Standards of Excellence for Age-Friendly Care at Home,  which outline the key principles and practices that providers should follow in order to provide high-quality care to older adults. To earn this certification at no cost: 

  1. When applying for accreditation, select the box for age-friendly care. There is no cost for adding
    your age-friendly care certification to your accreditation.
  2. Learn – visit chapinc.org/age-friendly and review the resources, standards, and learning modules.
    (the learning modules can be downloaded and used in your companies LMS free of charge).
  3. As part of your site-visit for accreditation, you will be inspected for how you execute the 4M’s
    Framework of Age-Friendly Health Systems and the 8 additional CHAP Age-Friendly Standards.
  4. Use your Certification to market your Certification and connect with over 3,000 participating Age-
    Friendly Health Systems.

The CHAP Standards of Excellence for Age-Friendly Care at Home outline the key principles and practices that home health and hospice providers should follow in order to provide high-quality care to older adults.

The Age-Friendly Health Systems movement has been shown to reduce cost of care, improve clinician retention and satisfaction, and improve patient outcomes.

CHAP has also developed learning modules designed to educate providers on how to create an age-friendly care environment for older adults. The modules cover a range of topics, including how to create a welcoming and respectful environment, how to communicate effectively with older adults, and how to provide person-centered care using the 4Ms Framework. These resources are available to all providers seeking the CHAP Age-Friendly Care Certification.

CHAP is committed to promoting best practices for home and community-based organizations, and this new certification will help ensure that home health and hospice providers have the knowledge and skills necessary to provide age-friendly care to their patients.

CHAP is always looking for opportunities/initiatives that will advance high quality care for patients receiving care in the home. With staffing issues and value-based care, Age-Friendly Health Systems 4Ms Framework improvements in patient and staff satisfaction will greatly benefit our home health and hospice agencies. We appreciate the support of JAHF, IHI, and the AHA” said CHAP COO, Teresa Harbour. “We are grateful for all of our committee members for supporting this initiative and helping build our Age-Friendly Care at Home Certification Standards. Feedback from our pilot sites has been overwhelmingly positive. Clinicians love the 4Ms Framework. It doesn’t add additional work to their already busy day, it’s part of their workflow and helps them organize their care. Clinicians get to be clinicians. With everything that’s thrown at clinicians, it’s great to have an initiative that not only benefits staff but improves patient care.”

To learn more about the process, register now for our free webinar.

For more information on CHAP and the new resources for Age-Friendly Care at Home, please visit chapinc.org.

About CHAP
CHAP is an independent, nonprofit organization accrediting providers of home and community-based care. Founded in 1965, CHAP was first to recognize the need for and value of home and community-based care standards and accreditation. As a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)–approved accrediting organization, CHAP surveys organizations providing home health, hospice, and home medical equipment services to establish if Medicare Conditions of Participation and DMEPOS Quality Standard are met and recommend certification to CMS. CHAP’s purpose is to partner with organizations nationwide to advance quality in the delivery of care and services in the home and community.

Dan McPhilemy
info@chapinc.org
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