Integra at Home: A flexible continuum of in-home medical care for older adults with complex needs

Abstract

Background: As individuals age, they may need new strategies to manage exacerbations of chronic disease to maintain their dignity and independence. Many end up in a revolving cycle of emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and post-acute care. Support to stay at home, which is often their preference, becomes a challenge and varies with insurance coverage, location, and financial status. There are few home-based options sufficiently agile enough to respond when acute conditions arise particularly with exacerbations of chronic disease.

Methods: In 2018, Integra designed a home-based option to treat acute exacerbations of chronic illness. A partnership with community paramedicine enabled faster response times and provided additional treatment tools. Using process improvement methodology, we developed "Integra at Home" workflows and team-based care. We counted averted emergency visits and hospitalizations, patient and staff satisfaction, and evidence of financial sustainability as a result of our program.

Results: Integra successfully developed a suite of home-based services, including responses to acute problems, to address beneficiaries' fluctuating medical needs. Following responses to 415 acute events, 74% (N = 307) resulted in averted emergency department visits. Based on InterQual® criteria, 34% (N = 103) of averted visits would have qualified as an averted hospitalization. All 64 respondents to patient surveys (N = 170) stated they would recommend our program. The staff indicated the model is a better way of caring for patients with higher rewards than traditional settings. The average length of stay in hospice for patients referred from the program (N = 22) was 4 weeks.

Conclusions: Home-based care continuums are feasible, yet resources to manage acute exacerbations remain inadequate. To fill this gap, we created higher acuity services to respond to urgent needs and monitor symptoms between episodes. Amid successes and challenges, we are serving higher acuity older adults in Integra's home-based continuum model. We encourage further spread of longitudinal home-based acute care models.

Keywords: acute care; community paramedicine; geriatrics; home-based; hospital at home; mobile integrated health; value-based care.