Survey: Support Services, Interoperability are Critical for Sustaining Care at Home

Author: Dan Yourk, MSN, MHA, FACHE, Vice President, Operations, Current Health, from Best Buy Health

With the industry at an inflection point, the movement to care at home seems inevitable, but transforming care delivery models is no small task. 

Current Health partnered with independent research firm Sage Growth Partners to survey 103 primarily C-suite hospital and health system leaders in the United States. The survey examined the evolving care-at-home market, focusing on the opportunities and needs driving care at home, the value leaders see from these programs, and the challenges to scaling care-at-home experiences.

 

Key finding: Long-term challenges prompt leaders to rethink care delivery

Care at home is poised for significant growth, but healthcare leaders point to a need for clinical and non-clinical support services, and data workflow integrations with the EHR to overcome the challenges of launching and scaling new hybrid care models.

The top three pain points for health system executives aren’t new:

• Staffing shortages (95%)
• High costs of care (74%)
• Reduced revenue (50%)

The long-term nature of these challenges may be contributing to leaders’ interest in rethinking care delivery models, with 2/3 reporting some care-at-home service today, and significant growth plans across chronic care (42%), early discharge (56%), and Hospital at Home (46%) models.

 

Top Challenges Highlight Need for Clinical and Non-Clinical Support 

Among leaders whose organizations currently offer some care-at-home service, workforce, patient engagement, and technology support are cited as the top challenges of these programs, and are prime opportunities for partnership. Outsourcing key clinical responsibilities such as monitoring and responding to patient data can help preserve in-house clinicians for “top-of-license” work and allow for more efficient management of staffing resources. Patient engagement and adherence is another always-on task that can easily be met by a virtual nurse team. 

When it comes to technology support, using nurses to troubleshoot devices and connectivity is a quick road to burnout for this critical resource. Responsive, on-demand technology support is critical to keeping clinicians and patients happy, and building a sustainable care-at-home program.

Clinical Support: Addressing Staffing Constraints

With 95% of leaders reporting that staffing shortages are an organizational pain point, healthcare organizations are concerned that introducing and scaling care-at-home programs will exacerbate bandwidth issues. Some respondents recognize the staffing benefits of care at home, with a quarter of those surveyed reporting that care-at-home can address staffing constraints, and 16% say care-at-home programs can help address staff burnout.  Staffing constraints will continue to create challenges for healthcare systems in the United States as the current generation of nurses continues to age and move away from bedside nursing.  Care-at-home programs offer nurses unique opportunities to continue using their clinical skills without the same physical demands of in-patient nursing.  Nurses working in care-at-home programs frequently provide feedback expressing high job satisfaction primary due to their ability to spend more time with their patients and truly address their clinical needs.

 

Dedicated technology support preserves clinicians’ bandwidth

Technology is essential to care-at-home-programs, but setting up and maintaining devices and connectivity within patients’ homes brings a host of variables and complications. Workforce challenges heighten concerns about the ability to provide the necessary technical support to ensure success. 

With most health systems not equipped to scale technology support resources out into the community (remotely or in-person), this need is another key opportunity for outsourcing. Dedicated technology support can respond to issues the patient or care team may encounter during setup and activation or over the course of care. This resource should also be able to work with logistics support to ensure all devices have the latest software and firmware updates.

 

Logistics support enables care to scale 

With most care-at-home programs relying on a variety of technologies and devices, managing the logistics for a program is an important area of operations. The task of managing inventory, sending and receiving, and reprocessing these items can quickly become a significant amount of work, but variations in patient census can make this a difficult area to staff. 

Ongoing, dedicated logistics support can enable care teams to focus on what they are best at—caring for patients—and allow program operations to scale smoothly.

 

EHR interoperability is necessary to simplify the patient and provider experience

70% of respondents agreed that electronic health record (EHR) integration is very or extremely important when considering a care-at-home solution, and 78% reported that an enterprise-wide solution is critical to providing care at home. Having a single platform that is interoperable with existing systems is essential to ensure comprehensive patient insights, improve provider experiences, and allow low-friction referral funnels.

 

Conclusion

There is no easy solution to the widespread challenges the healthcare industry is facing. But care-at-home programs present one opportunity to address staffing and capacity constraints, while also scaling new care delivery models that are proven to produce better patient experiences and outcomes. However, making this opportunity a reality depends on developing programs that seamlessly fit into or enhance provider workflows, are easy for patients to use, and include robust clinical and non-clinical support.  Healthcare organizations and leaders need to recognize that a care-delivery paradigm shift is in motion with no end in sight.  Patients, payers and providers are demanding new care delivery models that are efficient, effective and convenient while also delivering excellent clinical outcomes.  To embrace this change and usher in a new era of healthcare, healthcare leaders must embrace the Art of Possible to re-imagine our organizations and bring innovative programs such as care-at-home to the forefront of health care delivery.  

Read the full survey report at CurrentHealth.com

Dan Yourk, MSN, MHA, FACHE, Vice President, Operations, Current Health, from Best Buy Health

To learn more about the evolving care-at-home market, and the opportunities and needs driving care at home, the value leaders see from these programs, and the challenges to scaling care-at-home experiences, please visit the Best Buy Health team at ATA2023 booth #908