Healthcare IT Update

HHAs That Use HIT Can Reduce Hospital Admissions

One-quarter of agencies now have telehealth systems, study says. Home health agencies that want to improve their patients’ care may want to take a page from these providers’ technology playbooks. Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills, Calif. reduced readmissions of congestive heart failure patients by 50 percent under a new program using home care telehealth devices combined with patient education and other components, it says. “The results from the CHF program are truly impressive when you consider that a significant percentage of our patients are elderly, have a range of comorbidities and are often uncomfortable with technology,” says Saddleback’s heart failure outreach care coordinator Laurie Carson. The hospital is extending its telehealth program to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients next, it says.

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Home Health Embraces Health Information Technology

So simple an HHA can do HIT? The joke goes that home health agencies are like cavemen among health care settings that resist HIT generally. But even though paperless home health agencies may seem like something out of a sci-fi novel, a new report reveals that more agencies are using technology to perform and track patient services than ever before. Statistics: More than 65 percent of all agencies now use electronic health records and 40 percent use point of service systems in the field, according to the National Association for Home Care and Hospice’s.  “The BlackBerry Report: The National State of the Home Care Industry Study.” NAHC and its co-sponsors conducted the study to gauge how often agencies use technology to deliver quality service, and to help agencies prepare for pending…

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