President and Board Chair’s Letter

Momentum. That’s the word that permeates the work of The John A. Hartford Foundation, its partners, and grantees over the past year. Indeed, 2017 was a banner year for leveraging what we’ve learned and taking big, bold steps to transform the way we care for older adults in America.

Momentum is also what we had in mind when we committed to our three areas of strategic focus: Age-Friendly Health Systems, Family Caregiving, and Serious Illness and End of Life. That’s because we feel the tide changing when it comes to creating health systems that are optimally designed to care for us as we age, that support our family caregivers, and improve serious illness and end-of-life care.

We’re more focused than ever on directly applying the lessons we’ve learned over 35 years to build and enhance the field of geriatrics in order to change health care practice. Last year we took exciting steps that we believe will achieve meaningful impact in the near term.

• We launched our Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative with five leading health systems, in partnership with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the American Hospital Association and the Catholic Health Association.
• We connected health system leaders and insurers with evidence-based resources for improving care for patients with complex health and social needs through the Better Care Playbook, launched through a collaboration that now includes The Commonwealth Fund, Milbank Memorial Fund, the Peterson Center on Healthcare, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The SCAN Foundation.
• From community clinics to Capitol Hill, we’ve actively and intentionally raised awareness about how to improve health care delivery to older adults, so both patients and payers benefit from high-value, evidence-based care at lower costs. Our nonpartisan efforts educate decision-makers on pressing issues and help equip them with important information to advance care for older adults.

In 2017, the Board of Trustees welcomed new member, Nirav Shah, MD, previously Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Clinical Operations at Kaiser Permanente Southern California and former New York State Health Commissioner. We also sincerely thank Barbara Paul Robinson, Co-Vice Chair, who retired from the board after 11 years following a decade of distinguished service as General Counsel.

Thank you for being a part of our momentum in 2017. Together, we will ensure that older adults receive the care and support needed to continue making vital contributions.

Terry Fulmer, PhD, RN, FAAN

President

Margaret L. Wolff

Chair of the Board