In a recent webinar hosted by American Telemedicine Association, health system leaders from across the country came together to discuss how home-based-care strategies can impact and have impacted their organization’s bottom line.
Workforce shortages, clinician burnout, extended length of patient stay, and suboptimal patient outcomes were some of the prevalent pain points discussed by the panel, which included Khurram Mir, Director of Innovation at UCI Health, Lauren Hopkins, Assistant Vice President for Virtual Care and Community Engagement at Augusta University Health, and Dominic Pahl, nurse administrator for virtual care at Mayo Clinic. The panel was moderated by Sarah Bell, VP of Customer Success at Biofourmis.
The panelists began by discussing how the pandemic accelerated alternative and care-at-home models at their organization’s and how that momentum has translated into long term strategies. Primarily, the panelists agreed that the key to a solid care-at-home strategy must begin with ‘the why,’ which is to say that any organization considering or scaling a care-at-home strategy must have clear alignment within their respective organizations for the desired impact of their program and problems that they are trying to solve.
The conversation underscored why these four operators have emerged as thought leaders within the field of care-at-home by highlighting the holistic concerns and challenges that organizations must consider when implementing and or managing care-at-home programs. For example, while sending patients home earlier than planned into a home-based-care program may appear to be an initial win, if patients lack the proper support once they are back home, they are likely to re-appear in a local ER, exacerbating many of the initial problems care-at-home strategies are meant to address.
The panelists also reminded the audience that when done right, care-at-home programs impact more than just the bottom line, patients’ lives can be dramatically improved as well. Dominic Pahl from Mayo shared a story about one of his patients who was able to attend their own wedding thanks to the support they received from Mayo’s home-based care program.
Getting the foundation right was a key theme for success. A solid digital platform, support within the community, well defined care pathways, and in-home service coordination were just a few of the core elements for success that the panel discussed. Interestingly, how the respective organizations were driving their home-based care strategies varied, confirming that there are different ways to address challenges that are plaguing organizations nationwide.
During the conversation panelists addressed audience questions that cut right to the heart of what is on health system leader’s minds as it relates to care-at-home strategies. How are programs addressing health equity, how to optimize cross functional teams and assigned staff, best practices for qualifying patients for your programs, how are services being billing for, and how are patients that lack basic internet connectivity in rural and in urban settings being reached?
The insights, best practices, and lessons learned from this panel of thought leaders outlines key consideration for organizations that are trying to solve major healthcare challenges such as, workforce shortages, clinician burnout, extended lengths of stay, and patient outcomes through innovative Care-at-Home strategies.