BPHC is pleased to announce that three nursing homes have been selected to implement six-month pilot programs aimed at connecting clinical and community providers to improve post-acute care for patients in the Bronx. They are:
Centers Health Care
(Community-based referral project)
Grand Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
(Combined telemedicine/telepsychiatry project)
Providence Rest Nursing Home
(Telemedicine project)
These pilots seek to reduce the rates of re-hospitalization, unnecessary emergency room visits and transitions for patients who are medically frail, as well as expand resources for providing quality care.
Each nursing home is also collaborating with other partners, such as managed care organizations, home care agencies and community-based physicians.
Planning for this initiative started in June 2017 when BPHC began convening with representatives from facilities that provide skilled nursing, long-term care and rehabilitation care. Priorities were identified for collaborating with nursing home facilities, in particular, skilled-nursing facilities.
One area of focus is telehealth interventions to increase physicians’ ability to address patients’ health needs that would otherwise result in a hospital visit or lengthy wait at a doctor’s office. Telehealth involves the use of telecommunications technologies to allow long-distance clinical healthcare or health-related education. These technologies can include videoconferencing, the internet, streaming media, and wireless communications.
Another goal is to empower physicians in the community to refer post-acute patients back to the nursing home if their health needs escalate but do not require emergency care.
BPHC received seven proposals by six organizations. A total of $350,000 has been awarded for this wave of pilot projects.
For more information, contact Monica Chierici.