Virtual visits in home health care for older adults.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Husebo AM
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4258330 | biostudies-other | 2014
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
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Project description:BackgroundTimely, in-person access to health care is a challenge for people living with conditions such as stroke that result in frailty, loss of independence, restrictions in driving and mobility, and physical and cognitive decline. In Southeastern Ontario, access is further complicated by rurality and the long travel distances to visit physician clinics. There is a need to make health care more accessible and convenient. Home virtual visits (electronic visits, eVisits) can conveniently connect physicians to patients. Physicians use a secure personal videoconferencing tool to connect to patients in their homes. Patients use their device of choice (smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop) for the visit.ObjectiveThis study aimed to assess the feasibility and logistics of implementing eVisits in a stroke prevention clinic for seniors.MethodsA 6-month eVisit pilot study was initiated in the Kingston Health Sciences Centre stroke prevention clinic in August 2018. eVisits were used only for follow-up patient encounters. An integrated evaluation was used to test the impact of the program on clinic workflow and patient satisfaction. Patient satisfaction was evaluated by telephone interviews, using a brief questionnaire. Access and patient satisfaction metrics were compared with concurrent standard of care (patients' prior personal experience with in-person visits). Values are presented as median (interquartile range).ResultsThere were 75 subjects in the pilot. The patients were aged 65 (56-73.5) years, and 39% (29/75) resided in rural areas. There was a shorter wait for an appointment by eVisit versus in-person (mean 59.98 [SD 48.36] days vs mean 78.36 [SD 50.54] days; P<.001). The eVisit was also shorter, taking on an average of only 10 min to deliver follow-up care with a high degree of patient satisfaction versus 90 (60-112) min for in-person care. The total time saved by patients per eVisit was 80 (50-102) min, 44 (21-69) min of which was travel time. Travel distance avoided by the patients was 30.1 km (11.2-82.2). The estimated total out-of-pocket cost savings for patients per eVisit was Can $52.83 (31.26-94.53). The estimated savings (opportunity cost for in-person outpatient care) for our eVisit pilot project was Can $23,832-$28,584. The patient satisfaction with eVisits was very good compared with their prior personal experience with in-person outpatient care.ConclusionsThe eVisit program was well received by patients, deemed to be safe by physicians, and avoided unnecessary patient travel and expense. It also has the potential to reduce health care costs. We plan to scale the project within the department and the institution.
| S-EPMC6803894 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundGroup visits can support health behavior change and self-efficacy. In primary care, an advance care planning (ACP) group visit may leverage group dynamics and peer mentorship to facilitate education and personal goal setting that result in ACP engagement.ObjectiveTo determine whether the ENgaging in Advance Care Planning Talks (ENACT) group visits intervention improves ACP documentation and readiness in older adults.MethodsThis randomized clinical trial was conducted among geriatric primary care patients from the University of Colorado Hospital Seniors Clinic, Aurora, CO, from August 2017 to November 2019. Participants randomized to ENACT group visits (n = 55) participated in two 2-hour sessions with discussions of ACP topics and use of ACP tools (i.e., Conversation Starter Kit, Medical Durable Power of Attorney form, and PREPARE videos). Participants randomized to the control arm (n = 55) received the Conversation Starter Kit and a Medical Durable Power of Attorney form by mail. The primary outcomes included presence of ACP documents or medical decision-maker documentation in the electronic health record (EHR) at 6 months, and a secondary outcome was ACP readiness (validated four-item ACP Engagement Survey) at 6 months.ResultsParticipants were a mean of 77 years old, 60% female, and 79% white. At 6 months, 71% of ENACT participants had an advance directive in the EHR (26% higher) compared with 45% of control arm participants (P < .001). Similarly, 93% of ENACT participants had decision-maker documentation in the EHR (29% higher) compared with 73% in the control arm (P < .001). ENACT participants trended toward higher readiness to engage in ACP compared with control (4.56 vs 4.13; P = .16) at 6 months.ConclusionAn ACP group visit increased ACP documentation and readiness to engage in ACP behavior change. Primary care teams can explore implementation and adaptation of ACP group visits into routine care, as well as longer-term impact on patient health outcomes. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:2382-2389, 2020.
| S-EPMC7718376 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This secondary analysis of the Health Survey for England 2000 aimed to investigate whether individual-level social capital is associated with care home residence and with function, mental health, and self-assessed health in older adults. Older adults in both care home and community residential settings were included. Two indicators of social capital, perceived social support and group participation, were considered for both care home and community-dwelling respondents. Amongst community dwellers, trust in others was considered as a third indicator. Functional impairment, psychiatric morbidity, and self-assessed health were used as indicators of health. Multivariable modelling was undertaken using logistic or ordinal logistic regression. The results show that severe lack of social support was associated with over twice the odds of care home residence, with increased odds of psychiatric morbidity in both care home and community settings, and with more severe functional impairment and worse self-assessed health in the community but not in care homes. Participation in more groups was associated with lower odds of functional impairment in both settings, and with lower odds of psychiatric morbidity and better self-assessed health among community but not among care home respondents. High levels of trust were associated with lower severity of functional impairment, reduced odds of psychiatric morbidity, and better self-assessed health. It is concluded that individual-level social capital was associated with care home residence and with indicators of physical, mental and self-assessed health. These associations differed between community and care home settings, and were generally stronger in the community.
| S-EPMC5547683 | biostudies-other
Project description:BackgroundOlder adults see multiple outpatient providers and increasingly use home health care (HHC) services. Previous studies attempting to draw inferences about the association between HHC use and patient outcomes have been mixed. Whether HHC is associated with care coordination and how both influence outcomes are unknown. In addition, prior studies have not taken the patient perspective into account. We examined the association between receiving HHC and self-reported gaps in care coordination and separately, preventable adverse outcomes.MethodsThe analysis for this cross-sectional study was conducted between October 2021 and June 2022, using data on 4296 Medicare beneficiaries from the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study who completed a survey on care coordination from 2017 to 2018. The associations between the receipt of HHC and two outcomes (a gap in care coordination, and separately, a preventable adverse event) were examined with Poisson models with robust standard errors. Potential confounders were accounted for through propensity score-based inverse probability weighting.ResultsAmong 4296 participants, 430 (10%) received HHC and they were older and had more comorbidities and ambulatory visits than those without HHC. HHC was not associated with differences in self-reported gaps in care coordination (33.3% HHC vs. 32.5% no-HHC, p = 0.70). HHC recipients reported more preventable drug-drug interactions (9.1% vs. 4.0%, p < 0.001) but not more preventable ED visits or hospital admissions. In IPW-adjusted models, HHC was not associated with gaps in care coordination (p = 0.60) but was associated with double the risk of a preventable adverse outcome (aRR 2.06; CI: 1.37, 3.10, p < 0.001).ConclusionsHHC recipients were significantly more likely (than those without HHC) to report a potentially preventable adverse event (particularly a drug-drug interaction), suggesting an opportunity to improve patient safety by leveraging the observations of older adults receiving HHC.
| S-EPMC10023304 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe experiences of mothers enrolled in Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program with virtual home visiting (VHV) during the pandemic remain mostly unknown. This study aimed to describe in detail the experience of home visitors and mothers with VHV during COVID-19 pandemic. This is a prerequisite for guiding future efforts to optimize MIECHV services that are provided through virtual operation.MethodsFocus groups discussion were conducted with home visitors (n = 13) and mothers (n = 30) who were enrolled in BabyCare program in Virginia from January 2019 to June 2022. This included mothers who received in-person home visiting (IPHV), VHV, or both (hybrid IPHV and VHV). Inductive analysis was used to identify emergent themes from the transcripts, then coding was conducted following a codebook that was developed by the research team.ResultsBoth mothers and home visitors considered IPHV necessary for a proper assessment of developmental milestones of children, for the assessment of the growth of the child through measuring the weight and height/length of the child, for the mothers to open up and discuss sensitive issues like domestic violence, for building a relationship between home-visitor and the parents, and for other potential benefits (comprehensive assessment of the environment around the child inside and outside the house from home visitors' perspective and detecting abnormal health conditions in children from mothers' perspective). Both mothers and home visitors see that VHV has some role to play but not to be a replacement for IPHV. If VHV is to be used, video conference is preferred by both mothers and home visitors, as it allows for some assessment.ConclusionMothers and nurses considered IPHV critical for proper and comprehensive assessment of the child and the family and also essential to build the nurse-client relationship. Both mothers and home visitors considered VHV supplementary to IPHV that can be used from time to time particularly with busy mothers. VHV may have little room with parents with intellectual disabilities and the difficulty in dealing with technology seems to be no longer a major issue.
| S-EPMC10422766 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IMPORTANCE:Commercial virtual visits are an increasingly popular model of health care for the management of common acute illnesses. In commercial virtual visits, patients access a website to be connected synchronously-via videoconference, telephone, or webchat-to a physician with whom they have no prior relationship. To date, whether the care delivered through those websites is similar or quality varies among the sites has not been assessed. OBJECTIVE:To assess the variation in the quality of urgent health care among virtual visit companies. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS:This audit study used 67 trained standardized patients who presented to commercial virtual visit companies with the following 6 common acute illnesses: ankle pain, streptococcal pharyngitis, viral pharyngitis, acute rhinosinusitis, low back pain, and recurrent female urinary tract infection. The 8 commercial virtual visit websites with the highest web traffic were selected for audit, for a total of 599 visits. Data were collected from May 1, 2013, to July 30, 2014, and analyzed from July 1, 2014, to September 1, 2015. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES:Completeness of histories and physical examinations, the correct diagnosis (vs an incorrect or no diagnosis), and adherence to guidelines of key management decisions. RESULTS:Sixty-seven standardized patients completed 599 commercial virtual visits during the study period. Histories and physical examinations were complete in 417 visits (69.6%; 95% CI, 67.7%-71.6%); diagnoses were correctly named in 458 visits (76.5%; 95% CI, 72.9%-79.9%), and key management decisions were adherent to guidelines in 325 visits (54.3%; 95% CI, 50.2%-58.3%). Rates of guideline-adherent care ranged from 206 visits (34.4%) to 396 visits (66.1%) across the 8 websites. Variation across websites was significantly greater for viral pharyngitis and acute rhinosinusitis (adjusted rates, 12.8% to 82.1%) than for streptococcal pharyngitis and low back pain (adjusted rates, 74.6% to 96.5%) or ankle pain and recurrent urinary tract infection (adjusted rates, 3.4% to 40.4%). No statistically significant variation in guideline adherence by mode of communication (videoconference vs telephone vs webchat) was found. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE:Significant variation in quality was found among companies providing virtual visits for management of common acute illnesses. More variation was found in performance for some conditions than for others, but no variation by mode of communication.
| S-EPMC6842573 | biostudies-literature
Project description:A preventive home visitation scheme has been part of Danish legislation since 1996. The aim of this study was to describe functional trajectories of older home-dwelling people, and to identify whether education of the preventive home visitation staff and individual risk factors were related to specific functional decline patterns. The study is a secondary analysis of a population-based prospective controlled cohort study. Participation totalled 3,129 non-disabled 75- and 80-year-old men and women without mobility disability at baseline living in 34 municipalities. Self-reported functional ability was measured at baseline and after 1½, 3 and 4½ years follow-up. No functional decline was seen in 58% of the participants. A total of 17% developed catastrophic decline, 6% progressive and 7% showed a reversible decline pattern. The remaining 12% showed mixed patterns. Education of the preventive home visitation staff was associated with a reduced risk of progressive decline, RR = 0.66 (CI 95% 0.50-0.86, p = 0.002). Not receiving home visits and living alone were associated with increased risk of catastrophic decline. Younger age (75 at baseline) was less associated with all decline patterns compared with older age (80 at baseline). Men had less risk of developing progressive, reversible and mixed decline patterns than women, but an increased risk of developing catastrophic decline. A feasible educational preventive staff intervention was associated with a reduced risk of progressive functional decline but not with other functional decline patterns. Early signs of functional decline may serve as an important trigger for when to intensify the search for and actively seek to ameliorate preventable conditions.
| S-EPMC5546280 | biostudies-other
Project description:BackgroundHome visiting services for older adults have been offered for decades to maintain and promote health and independent functioning, thus enhancing quality of life. Previous systematic reviews have provided a mixed picture of the benefits of home visiting programmes in older adults, primarily because of heterogeneity in study designs, targeted populations, and intervention strategies. These reviews may also become out of date; thus, an updated synthesis of relevant studies is warranted. Our objective is to perform a systematic review of recently published primary studies on the effectiveness of multi-professional home visits on quality of life among older adults.MethodsWe will perform a comprehensive search for studies investigating the effect of a multi-professional home visit approach on quality of life among older adults. We will conduct the literature search in selected electronic databases and relevant research websites from January 2010 onwards. We will include randomised controlled trials (RCTs), cluster randomised controlled trials (cluster RCTs), and observational studies that enrolled older adults without dementia over 60 years old, along with studies involving multi-professional preventive-promotive home visit approaches not related to recent hospital discharge. We will report our planned review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We will retrieve and record relevant data in a standardised data extraction form and evaluate the quality of the included articles using the Cochrane risk of bias tool and the quality assessment tool for studies with diverse designs (QATSDD). Where appropriate, outcomes will be pooled for meta-analysis using a random-effects model. The main outcomes include quality of life, incidence of falls, depression, dementia, and emergency department admissions.DiscussionThis review may provide evidence for the effectiveness of home visits in improving older adults' quality of life. It will potentially benefit health care professionals, policymakers, and researchers by facilitating the design and delivery of interventions related to older generations and improve service delivery in future.Systematic review registrationPROSPERO CRD42021234531 .
| S-EPMC8650292 | biostudies-literature
Project description:OBJECTIVE:To investigate effects of a novel dementia care coordination program on health services utilization. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING:A total of 303 community-dwelling adults aged ?70 with a cognitive disorder in Baltimore, Maryland (2008-2011). STUDY DESIGN:Single-blind RCT evaluating efficacy of an 18-month care coordination intervention delivered through community-based nonclinical care coordinators, supported by an interdisciplinary clinical team. DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS:Study partners reported acute care/inpatient, outpatient, and home- and community-based service utilization at baseline, 9, and 18 months. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:From baseline to 18 months, there were no significant group differences in acute care/inpatient or total outpatient services use, although intervention participants had significantly increased outpatient dementia/mental health visits from 9 to 18 months (p = .04) relative to controls. Home and community-based support service use significantly increased from baseline to 18 months in the intervention compared to control (p = .005). CONCLUSIONS:While this dementia care coordination program did not impact acute care/inpatient services utilization, it increased use of dementia-related outpatient medical care and nonmedical supportive community services, a combination that may have helped participants remain at home longer. Future care model modifications that emphasize delirium, falls prevention, and behavior management may be needed to influence inpatient service use.
| S-EPMC5785326 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundHome-dwelling frail older adults are often faced with multimorbidity and complex care needs, requiring health and social care systems that support frail older adults to age in place. The objective of this paper was to investigate the types of formal health and social care as well as informal care and social support used by home-dwelling frail older adults; whether they perceive their support as sufficient; and their experience with and preferences for care and support.MethodsUsing an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, we first conducted a secondary analysis of a subset of cross-sectional data from the ImplemeNtation of a community-baSed care Program for home dwelling senIoR citizEns (INSPIRE) population survey using descriptive analysis. Subsequently, we analyzed existing data from interviews in the parent study to help explain the survey results using applied thematic analysis. Results were organized according to adapted domains and concepts of the SELFIE framework and integrated via a joint display table.ResultsOf the parent population survey respondents, 2314 older adults indicating frailty were included in the quantitative arm of this study. Interview data was included from 7 older adults who indicated frailty. Support from health and social, formal and informal caregivers is diverse and anticipated to increase (e.g., for 'care and assistance at home' and 'meal services'). Informal caregivers fulfilled various roles and while some older adults strongly relied on them for support, others feared burdening them. Most participants (93.5%) perceived their overall support to meet their needs; however, findings suggest areas (e.g., assessment of overall needs) which merit attention to optimize future care.ConclusionsGiven the anticipated demand for future care and support, we recommend efforts to prevent fragmentation between health and social as well as formal and informal care.
| S-EPMC9663289 | biostudies-literature