Survey Shows Healthcare Leaders Plan to Broadly Expand Care at Home

Current Health today released a new report analyzing the trends, challenges and opportunities for driving adoption of care-at-home programs. Based on a survey of leaders at hospitals and health systems, the research finds that while the majority of these organizations offer some type of care at home (66%), these programs need robust technology and support, in addition to financial reimbursement, to deliver care at scale.

The majority of healthcare organizations have begun moving care outside bricks-and-mortar facilities, offering digitally enabled care-at-home programs across the acuity spectrum. These programs can improve patient experiences and outcomes, with survey respondents indicating the primary benefits of care-at-home programs include decreased readmissions (69%), decreased hospitalizations (60%) and decreased emergency room visits (59%). While many hospitals and health systems have reported significant value from care-at-home models, others face operational and financial hurdles when it comes to implementing and expanding these types of programs.

As healthcare organizations face continued staffing shortages, high costs of care, and reduced revenue, care-at-home programs present an opportunity for health systems to deliver cost-effective, quality care at scale, while meeting patients where they are and offering exhausted clinicians a new way to practice. To learn more about this evolving market as well as the opportunities and challenges facing care-at-home programs, Current Health surveyed more than 100 primarily C-suite hospital and health system leaders during September 2022.

Key findings from the report include:

• The clinical benefits are clear, but staffing is a top concern for organizations looking to implement a care-at-home program.
  • 95% of leaders shared staffing shortages are an organizational pain point, and many are concerned care-at-home programs will exacerbate the issue.
  • 59% of respondents said that finding the necessary workforce is a significant barrier to deploying care-at-home programs.
  • Aside from staffing, patient engagement (51%) and in-home technology support (47%) also rank high as challenges to delivering care at home.
• Technology is essential to care-at-home programs – but it must be embraced for programs to be successful.
  • Getting patients to engage and adhere in care-at-home programs is a challenge, according to 51% of respondents.
  • Leaders note that clinical monitoring support (54%), logistics support (48%) and in-home technical support (53%) are “very” to “extremely” important when considering a care-at-home solution.
• To ensure care-at-home programs solve for, rather than exacerbate ongoing challenges like staffing issues, health systems must identify solutions that fit seamlessly into clinician workflows and provide sufficient support.
  • 70% of respondents agreed that EHR integration is extremely important when considering a care-at-home solution, and 78% reported that an enterprise-wide solution is critical to providing care at home.

“Two-thirds of health system leaders we surveyed have deployed care-at-home programs, demonstrating significant progress as it relates to making the home a setting for care, but building and sustaining these care models is challenging,” said Christopher McCann, CEO of Current Health, a Best Buy Health company. “Our survey found that health system executives are enthusiastic about care at home and believe that it is often better for patients, but they need clinical, technical and logistical support to ensure that these programs can sustainably operate at scale. We’ve seen a continually growing appetite to move care home, but it will be partnerships that marry clinical, technical and operational expertise that fulfill the promises of these care models.”

For more findings from Current Health’s survey, download The State of Care at Home: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities for Evolving Care Models.

About Current Health

Current Health, from Best Buy Health, offers an enterprise care-at-home platform to enable healthcare organizations to deliver high-quality, patient-centric care at a lower cost. The Current Health platform brings together remote patient monitoring, telehealth capabilities, and patient engagement tools into a single solution that can support patients across the care continuum, from chronic disease management to Hospital at Home. Powered by Best Buy, Current Health provides end-to-end services to support programs designed for scale, including in-home support, logistics, and a 24/7 Clinical Command Center. For more information, visit https://www.currenthealth.com/ and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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