Keeping nursing home patients out of hospital

A significant number of hospitalizations among nursing home patients are potentially avoidable, several studies in recent years have shown. What’s more, skilled care patients do better overall when they don’t have to be moved among health care institutions. Dr. Steven Handler

By Kris B. Mamula, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette September 22, 2016

Hospital giant UPMC is taking aim at reducing avoidable hospital admissions with a new, wholly owned, for-profit subsidiary that will provide nursing homes with real-time, physician consultation for caregivers, patients and their families.

The new company, called Curavi Health Inc., employs seven people and will be located on the South Side.

The Jewish Association on Aging’s Charles Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Squirrel Hill is among Curavi’s first clients outside the UPMC system.

“We are just starting to get traction in the market,” said Steven Handler, a physician specializing in the health of elderly people, who helped develop Curavi’s technology over the past three years.

A significant number of hospitalizations among nursing home patients are potentially avoidable, several studies in recent years have shown. What’s more, skilled care patients do better overall when they don’t have to be moved among health care institutions.

Nursing home patients often wind up in the hospital for such things as pneumonia, congestive heart failure and urinary tract infections, which could safely be treated without going to a hospital, several studies have shown.

In 2011, skilled nursing facilities transferred one-quarter of Medicare patients to hospitals for admission at a cost of $14.3 billion, according to government data. Of that sum, $8 billion was spent unnecessarily.

In Pennsylvania alone, that’s 27,000 potentially avoidable hospitalizations from about 700 nursing homes at a cost of $220 million, according to UPMC.

Having a doctor available for caregivers and patient families through a telemedicine link is expected to save hospitals — and soon, nursing homes — the Medicare penalties that accrue when a patient is readmitted within a month of discharge.

Hospitals have been penalized by Medicare for several years for avoidable patient readmissions, but nursing homes are expected to face the same kinds of penalties in 2018.

Unnecessary patient transfers can have health consequences: medication errors, wrong-site surgery and other problems have been related to communication breakdowns during patient hand-offs, studies have shown.

“The hand-off communication issue is huge, huge,” JAA COO Mary Ann Foley said. “That’s where mishaps occur.”

Nursing homes will pay for Curavi’s services and Dr. Handler said he believes the company has few competitors in the market that the new Medicare rules is opening up.

“This is an enabling technology,” said Dr. Handler, who is Curavi’s chief medical and innovation officer. “That’s the goal here. Our goal is to be a national company.”

Curavi is among more than 14 companies in a portfolio of UPMC-related outfits dating back 15 years, many of which have capitalized on skills and procedures that were perfected within the hospital system before they were marketed nationally.

Curavi anticipates selling its physician consultation services and tricked out telemedicine carts, which include electronic stethoscopes, heart monitors and cameras, to the 16,000 nursing homes in the country, Dr. Handler said. Fellowship-trained geriatricians will be available nights and weekends for consultation and they will have ready access to the patient’s electronic medical records.

Source Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Curavi Care

CuraviCare is a HIPAA-compliant propriety video platform software specifically designed for telemedicine in nursing homes.CuraviCare allows the nursing home staff to request a telemedicine consult with one touch. The telepresence software then facilitates the interaction between a telemedicine physician and the patient who is experiencing an acute change of condition.

CuraviCare is designed for easy and simple operation, building on the workflows developed through broad telemedicine experience in the UPMC and RAVEN homes. Workflows have been optimized to simplify the telehealth experience and eliminate technology fear.

Clinical Validation of Outcomes

Curavi Health has leveraged the experience gained in a four year CMS-funded study of telemedicine in the skilled nursing facilities, as well as extensive experience in SNF’s owned by UPMC, a 20+ hospital academic medical center, to create the optimal telehealth experience.

Source What we do – Curava Health

Also see
Venture aims to reduce unnecessary hospitalization of nursing home patients The Tribune-Review
Telemedicine in Nursing Homes Cuts Hospitalization Costs One Healthcare Worldwide
Long Distance and Up Close University of Kentucky Odyssey