Home Health & Hospice Week

A new study may help sway policy- and lawmakers toward boosting home care. Findings from a study conducted by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston suggest that programs aimed at helping older patients recuperate successfully at home instead of in an institutional setting could greatly improve their health outcomes and reduce health care costs. Direct discharge from the hospital to a skilled nursing facility puts patients at "extremely high risk" of needing long-term nursing home care, rather than returning home, says the study published in the Oct. 3 Journals of Gerontology Series A: Bio-logical Sciences and Medical Sciences. "If Medicare payment guidelines were broadened to cover in-home care -- bathing and food preparation for example -- there is a tremendous potential for savings and patients could adjust gradually back to their familiar home environment," study author James Goodwin, Director of the Sealy Center on Aging at UTMB, says [...]