The Role of High Acuity In-Home Care During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency: Overview, Impact and Outlook

DispatchHealth Releases Comprehensive White Paper

DENVER, June 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The COVID-19 crisis spotlighted the fragility of the U.S. healthcare system and the challenge of achieving equitable access to care. It also served as a stark reminder that treatment delays accompanying overcrowded emergency rooms can lead to higher morbidity and mortality rates, increased violence toward staff, elevated levels of clinician burnout, and higher turnover among hospital staff.

Today, DispatchHealth, one of the largest providers of high acuity in-home care for complex patients, released a comprehensive white paper highlighting how its unique model of care was applied nationwide to address the needs of patients, providers, and payers during the public health emergency. Co-founder and CEO Dr. Mark Prather says, "While the end of the emergency phase of the COVID-19 global pandemic closes a chapter in history, we are emerging with a solid grasp of the adaptive strategies required to meet the needs of patients and an evolving workforce. " 

DispatchHealth had a firm stake in the ground before the pandemic, with teams in multiple markets nationwide and several payer and health system partnerships supporting in-home high acuity care. However, the pandemic created a unique opportunity for DispatchHealth's distributed, home-based healthcare delivery ecosystem to become a lifeline and change the well-being trajectory for hundreds of thousands of patients nationwide.

Beyond the nearly 200 thousand COVID-19 patients treated, and more than 200 thousand tests administered, DispatchHealth's most significant impact was the ability to address the unmet needs of almost 700 thousand Americans, nearly half a million of whom required emergency-room-level services. Dr. Prather adds, "Without a doubt, these programs address capacity and caregiver fatigue issues. But, in addition, Covid has raised awareness of the possibilities and value of in-home care broadly, as well as the inequity of care for some of our homebound and access-challenged populations – it would benefit the industry to look, listen and see where pandemic adjustments have resulted in improvements."

DispatchHealth's white paper "The Role of High Acuity Care in the Home During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency: Overview, Impact, and Outlook," is available for download at https://www.dispatchhealth.com/COVID19/whitepaper/.

About DispatchHealth: DispatchHealth brings the power of the hospital to the comfort of home. We provide comprehensive and trusted medical care in the home to people with serious health concerns — with services that include same-day, urgent medical care; hospital alternative care; and recovery care. DispatchHealth's emergency medicine and hospitalist medicine trained care teams are equipped with all the tools necessary—including imaging and IV infusions—to treat common to complex injuries and illnesses in the home. DispatchHealth is partnered with most major insurance companies and works closely with primary care and specialty care providers, EMS, health systems, senior living facilities, and employers to deliver in-home care that reduces unnecessary emergency room visits, hospital stays and readmissions. Since the company's inception in 2013, our expert medical teams have treated more than one million people in their homes across more than 30 states in the country—resulting in 58% emergency room avoidance, 8.5% 30-day hospital readmission, 98% patient satisfaction, and nearly $1.5 billion in medical cost savings. For more information, visit DispatchHealth.com.

SOURCE DispatchHealth