LIL BANCHERO: So in the United States, every day 10,000 people turn 65. So there absolutely is a call to arms to a movement to change the way we’re providing care to our elder population. Back in 2012, we started to lay the foundation for our geriatric work. We were getting ready to build the new tower. And we had this base that we wanted. What would we fill it with that would best serve the community?

And we realized that it was the geriatric population that we really hadn’t had much of a focus on. The emphasis was on education. How do we truly take care of the older population? It was things like mobility, medication that we were really trying to hone in on.

SUSAN SHELTON: The staff spent a lot of time with my dad working with him at his pace. He ended up with pneumonia and was admitted to the ACE unit at Anne Arundel. One of the things that sticks out in my mind is they really understand the elderly and what they need. My dad was 100 years old when he passed away.

I think he had had other experiences in different hospitals where the care was not of that same caliber. I really felt comfortable with his care. I felt like I could leave if I needed to and come home for the evening and know that he was well taken care of.

LIL BANCHERO: A few years after we opened the ACE unit, we were approached by the Hartford Foundation to actually look and work together to set prototypes for geriatric care. The four Ms are what we work off of. So the four Ms are medication, mobility, mentation– which is your thinking– and what matters to you.

So the first thing we did was really look at mobility. We’re walking patients more than we ever have. Patients are out of bed.

We have whole protocols on drinking your water every day. We have patients that exercise in a group together. And then afterwards they have lunch.

It is a wonderful way for patients to connect. Just talking to people and not being isolated in a hospital bed does wonders for people getting better. And so our whole premise to all this is, it’s not just the ACE unit that should be getting this kind of care, but everybody throughout our organization.

MARJORIE D. LEWIS: Anne Arundel provides excellent care from the emergency room to the physicians and to palliative care. And when my husband was in the situation that he was in, no quality of life, now I feel he’s gotten the quality of life back based on the care that he has received.

BURTON LEWIS: I’ve never been in a hospital before where everybody meets you with a smile. And it’s just great. It makes you feel better. The whole experience with palliative care has been beautiful. If everybody gets a nurse and a doctor like I have when I go there, they should come out a more positive person.

LIL BANCHERO: We’ve had some wonderful feedback from patients. The next step in this journey is the creation of the Institute for Healthy Aging at Anne Arundel Medical Center. The Institute of Healthy aging is going to be the broad umbrella for all the geriatric work we’re doing. It will entail palliative care, ethics, research.

It’s really going to broaden our care outside the walls of the hospital. We’re one of four other health systems in the whole country who actually are laying the prototype to care for this population. The work we’re doing here will be spread to other organizations across the country, which is pretty exciting work.