Oak Street Health

Ebony Harpool

Community Care Leader

If the people in the healthcare industry learned anything during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is how important home healthcare is and continues to be. During the pandemic, health organizations outside of large hospital systems had to pivot to telemedicine and home visits to meet patients’ needs and provide care.  This required healthcare organizations to have the technical bandwidth capable of supporting telemedicine along with manpower and implement skilled professionals to be able to deliver patient care virtually and/or physically in the home. Payors enter into the home healthcare field by providing telehealth services to their enrollees along with home visits.

Home healthcare provides a wide range of services, both clinical and non-clinical, for illnesses and injuries in the comfort of the patient's home. These services may include chronic disease management for conditions such as diabetes, COPD, hypertension/heart disease, and skilled nursing for wound care and medication reconciliation after hospitalization.  It also includes physical and occupational therapy for frailty or after a long hospital stay, behavioral health services through telemedicine, and social determinants of health can be identified via a social worker and/or a community health worker.Patients receiving home healthcare can expect the same care that would be provided in a hospital, a physician's office, or a nursing home. There are healthcare organizations that are partnering with physician offices and payors to provide home healthcare services to get the patient well enough to go back into their physician's office.

"Home healthcare services are less expensive and can lead to better health outcomes. It can help lower medical costs by preventing avoidable admissions by managing urgent or acute care conditions as well as chronic condition"

Home healthcare services offer a variety of benefits to the patient and healthcare organizations.  Meeting patients where they are physically, mentally, and socially offers convenience, comfort, and safety, especially to the most vulnerable groups, like the elderly. Patients can receive high-quality, personalized care from a team of professionals. It allows patients, more so older adults, greater independence and helps them become more self-sufficient.  Family and caregivers are relieved when the challenge of care is lifted due to home healthcare services. For healthcare organizations, home healthcare services are less expensive and can lead to better health outcomes. It can help lower medical costs by preventing avoidable admissions by managing urgent or acute care conditions as well as chronic conditions.

With more and more Americans aged 65 years and older living longer, opting more for home healthcare, and wanting to be more independent, home healthcare is more important now than ever.