As the U.S. population grows older and more diverse, meeting the needs of mature adults—particularly those who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid—has never been more important. Resources for Integrated Care (RIC) designed the Geriatric Services Capacity Assessment (GSCA) Tool and User Guide to help your organization evaluate and enhance its readiness to provide high-quality, equitable, and person-centered care to older adults.

First published in 2016, RIC extensively revised the GSCA in 2024 to incorporate updated evidence-based strategies, frameworks, and resources. It includes a user-friendly Excel-based assessment tool, along with an accompanying user guide, offering health plans, systems, and provider organizations a meaningful entry point to facilitate organizational change.

Actionable Insights for Organizational Improvement

By completing the GSCA, you will gain a clear understanding of where your organization stands on the geriatric-competent care delivery continuum. This valuable insight will support health plans, systems, and provider organizations working to:

• Enhance care quality – by identifying opportunities for process improvements, partnerships, staff development, and more.
• Empower staff – by offering teams a deeper understanding of the diverse needs, situations, and preferences of older adults. This, in turn, will help improve clients’ self-efficacy and overall care experience.
• Foster greater awareness and engagement among staff about the needs of older adults. This can lead to improved engagement in primary care and preventive screenings, which may reduce avoidable hospitalizations and associated costs.

Downloadable Version of the GSCA

Click the following links to download the two parts of the GSCA:

1. GSCA User Guide: Offers background, context, and guidance on completing the assessment using the GSCA Tool. It also presents a list of vetted resources to support equitable, person-centered, geriatric-competent care.
2. GSCA Tool: Offers questions and interactive scoring that health plans, systems, and providers can use to assess readiness for or evaluate progress on delivering geriatric-competent care.

Intended Audience

The target audience includes health plans, systems, and providers—particularly those working with dually eligible individuals—that wish to either begin or advance their efforts to improve their geriatric competence.