Hospital and home care collaboration has always been at the systemic core of health care programs and practices. During COVID-19, collaboration is imperative, as home care clinicians help avert hospitalizations and relieve pressures on overburdened facilities while reducing costs across programs and payers.
Meanwhile, in an April HCA survey, 86% of home care providers across New York State said they wanted to more actively collaborate with hospitals in the public health emergency.
HCA has joined forces with state hospital associations — the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) and the Iroquois Healthcare Association (IHA) — to strengthen these kinds of connections by launching a “Statewide Hospital-Home Care Collaborative for COVID-19 and Beyond.”
This HCA-HANYS-IHA collaborative is being supported by a grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation. It is promoting pre- and post-hospital collaboration among hospitals and home care providers to address patients’ needs not only in the COVID-19 pandemic but also on a lasting basis.
This multi-tiered effort includes a webinar series (seven are currently scheduled) presenting model hospital-home care collaboratives along with additional resources and technical support to support collaboration. Our first program, for instance, featured a presentation by Northwell Health on its home care initiative for people infected with COVID-19, so they can be treated effectively without having to go to a hospital.
To learn more, visit our website. Please also let us know if your office would like to participate in these program offerings by attending the webinars or supporting this initiative in other ways. (And for further background on the importance of collaboration, see this recent Advisory Board article on “5 Ways Hospitals Can Boost Capacity through Home Health.”)
For questions, please contact HCA’s Director for Public Policy and Advocacy Alyssa Lovelace at alovelace@hcanys.org.