Hennepin Healthcare System is one of AARP 2021 Quality Measure Innovation Grant Award Winners

Hennepin Healthcare System was one of the two organizations to win the 2021 AARP Quality Measures Innovation Grant. The announcement was made virtually at the Gerontological Society of America’s 2021 Annual Scientific Meeting. Hennepin Healthcare System received a $150,000 grant to develop innovative health quality measures to enhance patient care and advance health equity among older adults and will also have access to OptumLabs Data Warehouse (OLDW). OLDW includes fully compliant, de-identified, longitudinal health information on enrollees, representing a diverse mixture of ages, ethnicities, and geographies. Anne M. Murray, MD, MSc, Roberta M. Meyers, MD, MPH, and Thomas Klemond, MD received the award.

 “AARP has long fought to provide access to quality health care so that everyone has the opportunity to live longer, healthier lives regardless of race, income or age,” said Lina Walker, Vice President of Health Security for AARP Public Policy Institute.

HHRI researchers are studying “Impaired Mobility as a Predictor of Health Care Access and Quality.” Disability and mobility limitations, barriers to health care access, and quality of care disproportionately affect low-income residents and communities of color. The proposal by Hennepin Healthcare System will help identify mobility impairment among older adults and evaluate how mobility impairment is linked with traditional health disparity characteristics, such as race, socioeconomic status, or living in a rural or urban location. It will also measure the effects of mobility impairment on hospital and/or emergency room use, the total expenses such patients face annually. This data is essential to overcome health care disparities for those living with mobility impairments.

The Quality Measures Innovation Grant Program was founded in collaboration with OptumLabs in 2016 and supports projects designed to form and/or examine innovative health quality and performance measures that can improve patient care. The AARP grants aid efforts to improve the lives of all older Americans.

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AARP Announces 2021 Quality Measure Innovation Grant Award Winners – November 11, 2021