CarePort Supports COVID-19 Transitions of Care
Hospitals across the US send 18 million referrals annually through CarePort to skilled nursing, home health, hospice, long-term acute and acute rehabilitation, accounting for nearly 40% of all acute to post-acute transitions nationally. CarePort sees thousands of COVID-19 hospitalizations every day and tracks patients from their acute care and then through their post-acute course of care. Given that CarePort customers are on the front lines of the pandemic, we added new features across the CarePort platform to help hospitals and post-acute providers better communicate and navigate care transitions during these times.
CarePort Product Updates:
Bringing the nursing home to the patient and their family virtually
Many hospitals and nursing homes at this time are restricting visitor access. As part of the conditions of participation for discharge planning, hospitals must share post-acute care options with patients and help them select a post-acute provider. Without the ability to tour facilities or a family member at the hospital to help, hospitals must adapt their discharge planning processes. Hospitals use CarePort Guide to share nursing home options with families via text message or email. Family members, who otherwise would be on-site with the patient, can see an interactive guide that includes virtual tours and pictures and help their loved ones select the right post-acute provider.
Identifying post-acute providers able to accept COVID-19 patients
Hospitals are having difficulty discharging COVID-19 patients to post-acute providers. Some post-acute providers are also isolating COVID-19 patients in specific wings or facilities and as such are adapting their intake protocols. To avoid these bottlenecks, hospitals can use CarePort to identify post-acute providers accepting or currently caring for COVID-19 patients and providers that have isolation bed availability, including surge referral types such as convention centers and pop-up facilities. With CarePort Guide and Referral Management, post-acute providers can update their ability and capacity to accept COVID-19 patients on an hourly or daily basis, ensuring hospitals see accurate and up to date information to discharge patients.
Tracking COVID-19 patients across the continuum
Hospitals may be aware of COVID-19 diagnoses at their own facilities, but patients often seek care at multiple hospitals, and even across state lines. Hospitals in a region are working together to share information on COVID-19 patients who may be seeking care from multiple health systems. Using CarePort Connect, hospitals are activating real-time notifications for newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients. With this functionality, hospitals can automatically alert providers that may have had an encounter with the patient in an ED or nursing home prior to diagnosis. Real-time alerts are also being sent to the primary care physician so that they can help with follow-up care.
Communicating COVID-19 protocols to post-acute providers
When should a COVID-19 patient be transferred to post-acute? What care protocols should the nursing home or home health agency follow? What happens if a COVID-19 patient decompensates in a post-acute setting? Hospitals are creating transitions of care protocols for COVID-19 patients to ensure a successful discharge. As part of that, hospital customers are building upon their post-acute partnerships and working with post-acute providers on discharge and placement criteria, post-acute care plans, and communication protocols. CarePort is working with hospital clients to notify post-acute providers in their immediate geographic regions regarding COVID-19 protocols, best practices and the status of patients undergoing testing to reduce time spent by individuals completing this manually. CarePort is also providing clients with a COVID-19 assessment created by one of our client partners for patients referred to nursing homes. Nursing homes can use this information to easily identify if they are able to accept the patient.
1k
ACUTE HOSPITALS
180K
POST-ACUTE CARE PROVIDERS
40%
POST-ACUTE TRANSITIONS IN THE U.S.
Supporting our Clients During COVID-19
Here at CarePort, we continue to monitor the news and understand the pressures facing the healthcare industry during COVID-19. We wanted to take a moment to share how CarePort is supporting the work of our clients – hospitals, health systems and post-acute facilities in particular – during this trying time.
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