HIMSSCast: The need for home care continues
The Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver is set to expire this year unless Congress acts.
Photo: Tetra/Getty Images
A nurse by training, Tim Ashe, chief clinical officer at Wellsky, knows the challenges that burnout, staffing shortages and bed capacity have on clinicians and the health system.
One way hospitals dealt with staffing shortages and the need for beds during COVID-19 was to use flexibilities allowed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to treat acute care patients at home.
Making the transition to acute hospital care at home was made possible by remote patient monitoring and technology, including Wellsky's intelligent care platform. The pandemic now officially ended, Ashe sees a continued demand for home-based services.
For more, listen to Ashe's conversation with Susan Morse, executive editor of Healthcare Finance News.
Talking points:
- An estimated 12,000 patients were admitted to the acute hospital care at home program between March 2020 and March 2023.
- Home-based care is an attractive setting for some clinicians.
- The CMS waiver allowing for Acute Hospital Care at Home is set to expire this year unless Congress acts.
- A recent study in Annals of Internal Medicine show the waiver program had overall low mortality (0.5%), lowered the use of skilled nursing facilities (3%) and decreased rehospitalization rates (6%).
- WellSky's Home Health EMR Software, remote patient monitoring and video visits allow for best practices home care.
- Clinical teams are able to respond to changes in the condition of a home care patient in a timely manner.
More about this episode;
Acute hospital care at home gets good grades from CMS research
Acute Hospital Care at Home data released
CDC releases guide to minimize healthcare worker burnout
Cost of burnout-related physician turnover totals $5 billion annually
Why healthcare leaders should embrace home-based technologies
Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org
