Having had the good fortune of launching our Home Care Service in Kolkata has been nothing short of a miracle, I still remember the small chit chat me and my Angel Investor had at the Hotel lobby in Kolkata, the golden words of our Angel Investor – “Execution is the key”,
Having worked in the clinical Diagnostic Industry, and being a patient engagement and empowerment evangelist at heart I always believed, that the patient are the most important stakeholders in the the healthcare ecosystem.
No tech can save you, you are only as good as your healthcare team.
In chemical kinetics, as they say the overall rate of a reaction is often approximately determined by the slowest step, known as the rate determining step (RDS) or rate–limiting step. Not a great analogy but similarly the efficiency of a Home care company is limited or enhanced by the efficiency, expertise and soft skills of the healthcare team it has.
The patient is not bothered about whether their records are digitized or whether the company is accredited, they are only concerned about the fact as
how they felt once the healthcare team left their house after performing their duties, and whether the Home care was worth it.
In the healthcare industry’s quest for lower costs and higher quality, hospitals, providers and home health care players are piloting new outcomes-based care delivery models such as Home Care. Home health care teams are natural partners in these models because their expertise can be leveraged to support some of the most costly patient needs across the continuum.
The home health company of the future must be part of a seamless, connected and coordinated home-based care continuum, as well as being connected with primary care, and hospitals.
Two key roles for the home health company of the future.
1. Post–acute care and acute care support: They should serve as key partners that support patients’ transition home and facilitate high-quality care. When deemed clinically appropriate for the patient, they could serve as posthospital and postemergency department resources for intense episodes of skilled nursing, care coordination, therapy, and related services.
2. Primary care partners: They should be partners with longitudinal, outpatient primary care medical homes and home-based primary care, with responsive skilled nursing, care coordination, therapy, and related services during time-limited episodes. They should also provide limited ongoing skilled nursing services to enable ongoing primary care to support primary care efforts to enable patients to stay healthy at home.
The demographic imperative of the quickly aging population, the shift from siloed to coordinated, value-based care, and the need to meet consumer preferences demand that home health Companies provide care as a part of the care continuum.
