The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services just released data on the Acute Hospital Care at Home initiative, which has so far admitted 11,159 patients suffering from respiratory infections, heart failure and severe sepsis. Although the program has proven successful in reducing hospital visits, the manpower required is costly and likely unsustainable for the already overburdened healthcare system.
Karin Schifter-Maor is CEO of Essence SmartCare, a technology and services company for seniors and chronic care. She believes the solution lies in technology that can accurately monitor vital signs, with the ability to tailor it to the patient’s needs. In this way, hospitals and health care systems can save costs by reducing the burden on healthcare workers making in-person visits while improving patient outcomes to help ensure the continuation of the CMS program.
Healthcare IT news sat down with Schifter-Maor to ask her about scaling the Acute Hospital Care at Home program, how remote patient monitoring can help scale the program, how RPM can make the home care program affordable, and the need for centralized patient data to Monitor patients and improve health outcomes.
Q. You argue that CMS’s Acute Hospital Care at Home program needs scalability to survive. Please provide some more information.
A. The CMS’s Acute Hospital Care at Home initiative has demonstrated its potential to revolutionize healthcare by providing acute care services in the comfort of the patient’s home.
However, the current program relies heavily on manual processes and in-person care, making it operationally challenging to expand as it requires patients to be visited in person by a paramedic at least twice a day, and once a day, in person or virtually, by both . a registered nurse and a doctor or advanced practitioner.
As resources run out and the number of patients increases, without scalability the initiative risks stagnation and cannot meet the demand for home care services.
Home care services are expected to rise sharply in the coming years, with the home care market expected to reach $272 billion by 2026. This is largely caused by the aging of the population and the increasing preference for care in a familiar environment. Yet traditional care delivery models are unsustainable amid rising healthcare costs and workforce shortages.
To address these challenges, healthcare providers must embrace and leverage technologies to expand care delivery capabilities beyond traditional parameters and into the home setting, without sacrificing quality. By improving the patient experience By continuously monitoring and leveraging patient data to improve operational flows, systems can ultimately meet the growing demand for home-based acute care services while optimizing resources.
Q. One of your answers to this problem is remote patient monitoring. You suggest that RPM can make the hospital at home scalable. How come?
A. Using RPM technologies, healthcare providers can remotely monitor patients’ vital signs, symptoms, and compliance with treatment protocols in real time. A proactive and predictive home care system can monitor routine vital signs, perform automated spot checks, and notify caregivers of any abnormalities.
This optimizes resource allocation and reduces the burden on healthcare workers for frequent in-person visits.
RPM enables continuous care management to enable healthcare teams to intervene immediately in the event of a deterioration in patients’ health status. For example, if a patient’s vitals reach dangerous levels, emergency services can be dispatched immediately to prevent further deterioration that would require hospitalization or be fatal.
Q. You further suggest that RPM can make hospital at home affordable. How can technology make this possible?
A. RPM reduces healthcare costs associated with traditional healthcare delivery models by minimizing the need for frequent in-person visits and hospital admissions. For example, one study looked at an RPM program for patients with type 2 diabetes and found that it could improve glycemic control and reduce the incidence of complications. but also the management costs.
Furthermore, early detection of complications and promotion of timely interventions can prevent costly adverse health events and hospital readmissions. Another study looked at the 30-day hospital readmission rate for heart failure patients taking RPM. It found that those using the digital health system have a 10% readmission rate, compared to the national readmission rate of around 25%.
RPM enables patients to actively participate in their care management and adhere to preventative measures that they would not otherwise have received.
The technology also supports long-term health care maintenance and chronic care conditions, which are among the most expensive patient groups and contribute significantly to the 5% of the population that consumes 50% of US health care expenditures.
The integration of RPM in the home hospital can make home care more cost-effective and sustainable, potentially reducing costs associated with these patient cohorts and ultimately benefiting patients, providers, and payers.
Q: On the other hand, you say the home hospital needs centralized patient data to track patients and improve health outcomes. Where will this data come from and what should hospital and healthcare system IT managers do here?
A. Centralized patient data is critical when it comes to implementing and managing home care programs like Acute Hospital Care at Home. Armed with comprehensive information about patients’ medical histories, treatment plans, monitoring data and outcomes, hospitals and healthcare systems can gain a realistic picture of patients’ overall health, helping to identify specific needs and areas for improvement for patient care.
In turn, staff can make more informed decisions about treatment and care to identify health trends and patterns that can be helpful in improving overall patient outcomes. By investing in digital healthcare IT infrastructures, executives can enable seamless information flow between healthcare environments to increase the effectiveness of home-based hospital initiatives and ultimately improve health outcomes for patients.
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