The following is a guest article by Laura Templeton, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer at Compassus
There’s no denying that increased delivery of patient care in the home was accelerated by the pandemic. The upward trend continues today, driven by the growth of our aging population and the continued adoption of technology. Many patients now prefer to receive care at home, when possible, and almost 93% of older adults say aging in place is important to them.
Today’s innovative home-based care providers are leveraging technology in meaningful ways to accommodate patient preferences and improve care. They’re also streamlining provider workflows, reducing preventable hospital readmissions, and positively impacting staff satisfaction and retention. Examining how home-based care has successfully deployed technology to support clinicians and patients can offer ideas to other care providers for strengthening service delivery across the continuum.
Supporting Sound Clinical Decision-Making
To be clear, technology will never replace in-person care, and clinician judgment will always be at the core of sound decision-making. However, by supplementing visits in the home with virtual consultations and remote monitoring of vital signs, care teams have a more complete view of the patient’s overall health and progress.
Digital channels can be used to identify and bridge gaps in care that can occur after care transitions, such as medication conflicts or sudden worsening in symptoms – even subtle changes in pulse or respiration. Remote technology can trigger protocols for medical stabilization so patients and providers can avert a health crisis, avoid a potential emergency department visit, and ultimately decrease care costs. Technology can also help clinical teams develop hyper-personalized care plans by identifying at-risk patients who may benefit from services earlier in their healthcare journey.
Delivering Patient-Centered Care
In addition to wanting to age in place, research shows older patients embrace virtual care – even more than younger age groups. In a 2021 study, 43.3% of adults age 65 and older indicated using telemedicine in the prior 12 months compared to just 29% among patients ages 18-29. This data is especially significant for home-based care: though people of all ages receive it, the majority of patients are older adults.
Just as in-home care allows patients to receive medical attention where they are most comfortable, virtual care offers access to team members between in-person visits, providing family members and caregivers an extra layer of support. Virtual care nurses can answer medical questions and provide expert guidance in real-time. Those interactions can not only save time, resources, and expenses, but they are also documented in the patient’s medical record so they’re available to the patient’s full care team.
The complement of virtual and in-person visits can also provide greater insights into potential barriers patients face, including social determinants of health gaps that care teams need to address to support patients’ overall physical, emotional, spiritual, and environmental well-being.
Technology has the potential to positively impact health equity issues by expanding care access for rural and underserved populations and offering health education to at-risk groups.
Simplifying Care Coordination
Technology is also helping address one of the oldest and most difficult challenges healthcare providers face: patient transitions from one level of care to another. Poor transitions and gaps in care coordination are often associated with adverse patient outcomes, lower patient satisfaction, and increased total cost of care.
Many hospitals and health systems have formed partnerships with home-based care providers, recognizing their important role in care coordination, monitoring patient health status, and improving patient compliance. Such partnerships not only reduce rehospitalizations and decrease overutilization of emergency services, but they can also alleviate burdens on hospital teams by boosting throughput and patient satisfaction.
Embracing the Intersection of Care and Technology
Innovation happens at a fast pace, so keeping patient safety, privacy, and preference at the forefront is critical. Achieving full-scale adoption of a new technology is always challenging, as is the commitment of capital and human resources needed to identify, deploy, and hardwire new technologies into our operations. Being successful requires:
- Keeping the ultimate goals of improved care delivery and patient satisfaction first
- Analyzing current operations to determine technology solutions that alleviate, not add burden, to team members
- Involving internal stakeholders early in the process to facilitate buy-in and identify potential challenges
- Identifying a technology partner certified in healthcare data compliance and cyber protection with a proven track record of data security
To avoid new tools, systems, or services because of an aversion to change does a disservice to the patients who could benefit from them. Home-based care’s diverse technology applications demonstrate how exploring innovative virtual solutions can help deliver the highest-quality care across the continuum, advance patient well-being, and improve patient and staff experience.
About Laura Templeton
Laura Templeton is executive vice president and chief operating officer at Compassus, a national leader in home-based care, providing a full suite of services including home health, infusion therapy, palliative care, and hospice.
