Unique to Intermountain Health: New 'ACE' unit helps aging patients transition from hospital to home

Did you know? The number of Americans age 65 and older is projected to increase by 47% by 2050, according to the Population Reference Bureau. To meet the needs of this growing population, Good Samaritan Hospital in Lafayette, Colorado has officially opened their Acute Care for the Elderly (ACE) unit as of this month!

ACE units have proven to reduce the length of hospital stays, lower costs, and decrease readmission rates. Additionally, patients cared for in an ACE unit typically return home with improved functional capacity and greater satisfaction with their hospital experience. 

“We believe the ACE unit will help address an essential need in our community by offering best-in-class, high quality care for the elderly population we serve" said Mary Cisneros, clinical nurse manager for the medical unit, which houses the ACE unit. "The unit will focus on meeting the unique needs of the geriatric population to help them live their healthiest lives possible.”

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday, April 7, the multi-disciplinary teams who collaborated to both help launch and support the ACE unit came together to celebrate its official opening. These teams include senior leadership, volunteers, physical medicine and rehabilitation, case management, pharmacy, dieticians, facilities, materials management, and education.

“One of the unique opportunities we have at Good Sam is to reimagine what we do, and the care we provide,” said Kevin Jenkins, Good Samaritan president. “With change comes new opportunities, and we're going through a lot of change. Our challenge is to reimagine the healthcare that we provide, and to grow it to align with the community, and the ACE unit is a perfect example of how we reimagine healthcare.”

Ann Gantzer, Good Samaritan chief nursing officer, who first challenged the medical unit team to research and then implement the ACE unit, added, “We are going to share this great news with everyone in the community - all the skilled nursing units, all the nursing homes, all the acute rehabilitation centers. We are going to promise that the patients that come to our ACE unit are healthier, better, stronger because of all the extra care and resources that our caregivers will provide these patients to help them on their healthcare journey," she continues. “Our community will know that if you need to send your aging parent to the hospital, people will say, ‘I want them on the ACE unit at Good Sam.”