Hotspotting in home health: the impact of interprofessional student-team home visits on health outcomes of super-utilizers of the health care system

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Jennifer Taylor Alderman (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Susan Letvak

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of interprofessional student-team home visits on the health outcomes of super-utilizers of the health care system. The cost of health care continues to increase at an unsustainable pace. Innovative educational approaches integrated with existing models of care are an example of a potential strategy aimed at reducing costs and improving outcomes. The model implemented in this study is referred to as hotspotting, an emerging term that describes an intervention during which super-utilizers are the focus of the intervention. Teams of interprofessional health professions students performed home visits on these patients in conjunction with the patients being in the care of one home health agency. This study analyzed 30-day hospital readmission rates and emergency department visits of the super-utilizers. There were twenty patients in the intervention group and twenty patients in the control group. Data analysis revealed a statistically significant difference in 30-day readmission rates between the two groups, with the group receiving interprofessional student-team home visits having fewer 30-day hospital readmissions. The number of emergency department visits were too small to warrant analysis. Home health agencies may find hotspotting an effective intervention to decrease costs and improve patient outcomes.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 2019
Keywords
30-day readmissions, Home health, Hotspotting, Interprofessional education, Social determinants of health, Super-utilizers
Subjects
Home care services
Hospitals $x Admission and discharge
Hospital utilization
Interprofessional education
Medical education
Health $x Social aspects

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