Protecting Vulnerable Older Patients During the Pandemic
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ABSTRACT: At a time of need, these organizations fostered trusted relationships with patients through proactive outreach and support, initiated a comprehensive virtual-care program, and provided home-based care services to protect them against the infection and its effects. Summary Older people (?70 years of age) with multiple chronic conditions have the highest risk of being hospitalized and dying from COVID-19. The current pandemic has highlighted how a strong primary-care system can play an important role in protecting this group of people. The ways in which innovative primary-care organizations have adapted their approach to the pandemic may offer important lessons, not only for future health crises but also for redesigning post-pandemic health care. We studied four primary care organizations that specialize in the care of vulnerable older patients (Iora Health, Oak Street Health, ChenMed, and Landmark Health) and assessed their responses to the COVID-19 crisis. Based on our analysis, we identified three key lessons for health-care systems: (1) the importance of fostering trusted relationships with vulnerable older patients to identify and address their clinical and non-clinical needs in a timely fashion, (2) the rapid implementation of a comprehensive virtual care approach to facilitate frequent touchpoints between the patient and the care team, and (3) the delivery of home-based health-care services to ensure health-care access during the pandemic.
SUBMITTER: Ikram U
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7498139 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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