title: The roles of senior management in improving hospital experiences for frail older adults.
abstract: With the aging of the population, healthcare executives are paying increased attention to fostering safe and high-quality care for older adults who become hospitalized. The Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP) is an evidence-based program that has been shown to be cost-effective in reducing episodes of delirium, functional decline, and long-term nursing home placement for older hospitalized adults. Senior administrators are known to play a role in quality improvement, but little is known about their roles in adopting clinical improvement programs such as HELP. Therefore, we conducted a mixed-methods study of 63 hospitals at different stages of adopting HELP to identify key roles and motivations of senior management to adopt HELP and the perceived impact of HELP on patient and staff outcomes. Our findings can be used by hospital management teams as they identify ways to influence and benefit from efforts to improve clinical quality, safety, and the experiences of older adults treated in their hospitals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. elizabeth.bradley@yale.edu
authors.forename: Elizabeth H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Bradley
authors.forename: Tashonna R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Webster
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schlesinger
authors.forename: Dorothy
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: Sharon K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Inouye
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003625:Data Collection; D005851:Geriatric Nursing; D006740:Hospital Administrators; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D024382:Professional Role; D014481:United States