It is not just COVID that has consumers shifting from a facility-based to a home-based type of care. Care-from-home is an emerging trend because it has produced positive outcomes in patient health and well-being. Previously targeting newly discharged patients, hospital care is now delivered right into the patient’s home. Not only is care-from-home convenient, it actually works. Hence, physicians need to rethink how they deliver care, especially to the elderly with chronic conditions or those in need of post-acute care.
What is the Care-from-Home model?
Care-from-home refers to a broad scope of health care services that can be administered in the patient’s home for an illness or injury. This type of care is usually less costly, more convenient, and just as efficacious and safe as the care one gets in a facility.
Virtual care services utilize the care-from-home model by leveraging telecommunication technologies that provide multiple high touchpoints for patients right in the safety of their homes. This particular type of care is in demand for the benefits it brings to patients particularly in staying independent and saving on costs, which have been discussed in an earlier blog, Aging In Place: What You Need To Know.
Clinicians are taking notice of this care-from-home model that keeps chronic care patients engaged in their own care management and produces positive health outcomes with reduced episodes of escalation or hospitalizations. Moreover, there is a shift in roles and redistribution of workloads as care shifts to the home. Some of the tasks doctors perform can be given to a clinical team made of nurses, physician assistants, or caregivers. This welcomed change could address issues of medical burnout or staff shortages without compromising patient care.
However, starting a care-from-home program requires some careful consideration particularly in aligning with the growth aspirations of the practice. It requires investment, demands certain capabilities, and entails a good strategy to be successful in providing patient-centric and equitable care.
How to make a sound care-from-home strategy?
To start, every practice should look into these six specific considerations:
1. Identifying your patient care journey
When does care-from-home take place in your patient’s care journey? You can determine your strategy in terms of post-acute and long-term care by prioritizing those who would benefit from a home-based type of care.
As baby boomers advance in age, more families will have to face the impact, especially the cost of chronic diseases. Patients and their families will be forced to look into options for post-acute and long-term care. Traditionally, eligible individuals would receive facility-based care, but a practice could now have several options. It could be a combination of different telehealth solutions like Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), Chronic Care Management (CCM), social support, and home modification to enable more patients to receive some level of home-based care.
2. Enhancing patient-centered and equitable care
Care-from-home may potentially improve health equity and health outcomes as Medicare incentivizes virtual care solutions. The social determinants of health impact care outcomes and cannot be overlooked in transitioning to a care-from-home approach. Without taking into account the existing disparities and issues of access, home-based care will not produce its desired results.
A good 17 percent of US households still face housing problems because of congestion, high costs, and lack of basic utilities like plumbing. Remote and rural places still fall far behind in adopting virtual care because of a lack of access to broadband at home. Even with advancements in digital technology, certain communities may not be able to receive care that depends on telehealth or remote monitoring.
For a practice to deliver care-from-home, they need to ascertain their patient’s needs, preferences, and living conditions. This patient-centric approach is crucial to having a satisfactory patient experience, compliance, and adherence to care instructions. Moreover, a caregiver that could speak their language and incorporate their cultural preferences in their meal plans will better capture and engage patients.
3. Aligning with existing capabilities
Any practice will be sorely tempted to shift immediately to a care-from-home model once they fully grasp its potential to reduce cost and offer high-quality, effective care. However, it takes time to set up a risk-based endeavor and reap the financial rewards to make this shift lucrative. The decision to offer in-home services has to take into consideration the different incentives of different payment models that a practice participates in.
Naturally, there is also facility-based care required for long-term and post-acute care that a home cannot offer. A practice that does not offer post-acute services done in a facility may need to consider either one of these two options: to work with their post-acute provider partners to come up with a collaborative strategy, or to work independently in offering a care-from-home post-acute strategy of their own.
4. Meeting capabilities and operating model requirements
There will be a few hurdles and challenges for a practice to transition to a care-from-home model. This may be more demanding for physicians whose business models utilize traditional modes to deliver and optimize care. There are some clinical requirements that a care-from-home may not be able to fulfill such as a sterile environment for immuno-compromised patients.
If the care-from-home strategy is not done right, remote monitoring cannot ensure patient adherence. There are also technological requirements like networks to capture and transmit accurate data as well as interoperability among different systems. Another consideration is the specific workforce tasked to deliver care at home. The question posed to every practice is whether to deliver care via an existing operating service-line model or through a dedicated team.
5. Scaling up or across
Every practice is continually challenged to pursue diversified models of delivering care to patients. As technological innovations continue to advance, there will be a wider range of care-delivery modes. There are opportunities to scale up in an existing market, reaching more patients via telehealth solutions. Meanwhile, there is also an opportunity to scale across to another platform like how RPM becomes a COVID screening device. The possibility for a care-from-home model to scale up and across comes with greater capital efficiency.
However, scaling up and handling a big volume of patients will likely require both significant investment and operating experience that may not be readily available. With telehealth adoption on the rise, many players have come into the market offering different services. A practice may opt to collaborate or work with these players to boost practice growth in care-from-home, in both existing markets or beyond.
6. Considering partnerships or outsourcing
Technology giants are now participating in delivering care. Some are investing in home-care start-ups or large providers of home-based care. A practice could seek capital and operating partners to boost its care-from-home programs or consider strategic partnerships. Either one requires a whole new set of capabilities because finding a partner that suits a practice’s needs and respects their independence may not come easily.
However, care-from-home is emerging as an indispensable component of the healthcare industry and every practice is now in a position to innovate its patient care.
Why value-based contracting may help you?
The goal of every practice is to utilize telehealth in optimizing their care-from-home program. This will entails deploying tools that can personalize the patient experience. There should be a seamless transmission of patient data and innovation to enhance patient engagement. Since digital tools play an important role in a care-from-home model, a strategy must be in place to enable a personalized experience. However, lack of capabilities and operational challenges are hurdles that are not easily overcome by any practice.
Ascent Care Partners (ACP) can provide such a strategic partnership that enables physicians to have their own “Premium Care” program. This type of program focuses on giving chronic care patients holistic care through RPM and CCM. The turnkey solutions are not just mere software or technology integration but a full service with a clinical team of care coaches invested in every patient’s health and well-being to boost patient compliance and produce positive health outcomes.
