NCT04639102

Practical Alternative to Hospitalization

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 72 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Pennsylvania · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The investigators test the PATH program to evaluate whether the program allows patients to spend more days at home in comparison to patients who receive regular care. The program will involve patients from Penn Presbyterian Medical Center with a set of diagnoses and will provide patients with enhanced services upon discharge from the emergency department.

Detailed description

The PATH program seeks to provide patients with enhanced services upon discharge from the emergency department, including visiting home nurses, visiting home physical and occupational therapists, scheduled frequent telephone visits with a medical provider, care coordination to arrange outpatient evaluation and testing, social work services, and other services. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether the PATH program allows patients to spend more days at home in comparison to patients who receive regular care. The broad goal of this program is to provide patients with a personalized package of enhanced services following discharge from the emergency department. In some cases, patients enrolled in the PATH program are likely to be discharged home regardless of enrollment, but are deemed potentially high-risk for returning to the hospital due to their illness or other factors. In other cases, enrolled patients might otherwise have been hospitalized but decide with their clinician that recovery at home is possible with the increased supervision and care provided by PATH. For all patients, we seek to determine whether PATH is effective in expediting patient recovery from acute illness and reduce the time spent in hospital or nursing facilities.

Conditions

• Emergency Department
• Health, Subjective
• Health Care Utilization

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	PATH Intervention	Patients will receive an enhanced level of care and service: 1. Discharge planning- PATH clinicians will develop an individualized treatment plan at time of ED discharge. Each patient will receive next-day phone call to monitor status. There will be additional patient and family education, triage of new or worsening symptoms, and additional telephone contact as determined in treatment plan. There will be communication with home health teams as needed. 2. Care coordination- PATH clinicians will arrange necessary primary medical doctor and specialty appointments. They will also communicate treatment plan to outpatient provider and arrange transportation for patients. 3. Home monitoring/ Home Health Services- If patients are eligible and consent to home health services, they will be enrolled in Penn Medicine Home Health (PMHH). This will include virtual home monitoring, skilled nurse care, home physical and occupational therapists, social work services, and wound care.

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-02-09
• Primary completion: 2021-07-02
• Completion: 2021-07-02
• First posted: 2020-11-20
• Last updated: 2022-08-10

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States