Most Health Systems Are Deploying Home-Based Care to Reduce Hospitalizations & ED Visits, Report Shows

MedCity News / By Katie Adams
  
The majority of health systems now offer some sort of home-based care program. The biggest goals of these programs are to improve patient outcomes through reductions in readmissions, hospitalizations and emergency room visits, according to a report released Wednesday by Current Health.
 
Current Health is a remote patient monitoring company that was acquired by Best Buy last year for $400 million. For its report, the company partnered with independent research firm Sage Growth Partners to survey 103 hospital and health system leaders. The respondents, who all worked for organizations with more than $100 million in patient revenue, included CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, chief nursing officers and vice presidents of finance.
 
One of the report’s more interesting findings was that respondents ranked improving health equity relatively low among the goals of home care models. This is despite the idea that being in a patient’s home often gives providers a better understanding of their life and how it is impacted by social determinants of health.
 
This survey finding was notable because Pippa Shulman, Medically Home’s chief medical officer, identified solving equity and access issues as one of the most important goals in home care during a recent interview.
 
“As a doctor, I can ask a lot of questions, but time is quite limited,” Shulman told MedCity News last month. “When I have my primary in-home clinician at the bedside of the patient and the tablet camera opens up, I can now see pictures on the wall. I see plants, I see mess, I see tidiness, I see dogs and cats roaming by.  Think of all of the information that can go into medical planning — people are not diseases, people are the accumulation of all of their life experiences and the people they’re around.”. . .

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