UNM Hospital and SRMC Earn National Age-Friendly Designation

The University of New Mexico Hospital and Sandoval Regional Medical Center — A Campus of UNM Hospital (SRMC) have joined a nationwide movement to improve healthcare for older adults.

Official response and confirmed impact

Recently, both campuses received a Level I Age-Friendly designation through the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI).

Alongside 6,680 other healthcare organizations with the same designation, they have helped reach more than 12 million older adult patients nationwide.

People 65 and older use three times as many healthcare resources as people under 65, according to the National Institutes of Health.

David Scrase, MD, is a clinical professor of internal medicine and geriatrics at the UNM School of Medicine.

“As a geriatrician, seniors are my people,” Scrase said.

“I jumped at the chance to really address ways of improving care for seniors in the two UNM Health hospitals, and developing a system that allows us to do that.”

Incident background

As one of the project leaders, he said he was thrilled to be part of the Age-Friendly initiative.