What You Should Know:
– Allscripts subsidiary CarePort launches a solution built for the COVID-19 epidemic that will make transitioning patients between health care providers safer.
– The COVID-19 Transitions of Care Hub will provide visibility into COVID-19 hospitalizations across CarePort’s 1,000 hospitals with 180,000 post-acute providers. It will also help hospitals find nursing homes and post-acute care for COVID-19 patients – an issue that has created a bottleneck in hospitals as patients continue to take up limited space.
CarePort Health, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Allscripts that connects 1,000 hospitals with 180,000 post-acute providers, is launching the COVID-19 Transitions of Care (“TOC”) Hub as an educational resource to share current learnings, latest trends and best practices for safe and effective transitions for COVID-19 patients across the healthcare system. Hospitals across the US send 18 million referrals annually through CarePort to skilled nursing, home health, hospice, long-term acute and acute rehabilitation, which accounts for nearly 40% of all acute to post-acute transitions nationally. Given that CarePort customers are on the front lines of the pandemic, the TOC Hub aims to disseminate critical lessons learned in real time.
The following insights are currently highlighted in the COVID-19 Transitions of Care Hub:
More visibility on COVID-19 hospitalizations needed
In the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s March 18, 2020 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, while 508 hospitalizations were reported, 1,514 cases were missing hospitalization status. Leveraging representative data from across CarePort’s customer base, CarePort analysis shows 777 confirmed COVID-19 diagnoses and an additional 3,726 suspected cases hospitalized last week alone. In an effort to provide more visibility to COVID-19 hospitalizations, CarePort will publish ongoing reports on COVID-19 trends across its acute and post-acute providers in 43 states.
Providers seek notifications on COVID-19 patients who may be diagnosed in outside hospitals
Hospitals may be aware of COVID-19 diagnoses at their own facilities, but patients often seek care at outside hospitals, and even across state lines. Given our national network of hospitals and post-acute providers, CarePort is enabling providers in our network to receive alerts when a patient with whom they had an encounter is diagnosed with COVID-19. As a best practice, real-time alerts are also being sent to the primary care physician so that they can ensure appropriate follow-up care.
Finding nursing homes for COVID-19 patients is creating bottlenecks in hospitals
In areas where there is an influx of COVID-19 patients, finding post-acute providers that are willing and able to accept COVID-19 patients has been a challenge. CarePort is working with hospitals to reduce bottlenecks on the discharge end by identifying post-acute providers that are accepting or are currently caring for COVID-19 patients. Post-acute providers are updating on a daily basis their capacity to accept COVID-19 patients. CarePort is also providing clients with a COVID-19 assessment created by a client partner for patients referred to nursing homes. Nursing homes can use this information to easily identify whether they are able to accept the patient.
Hospitals are leveraging ways to help patients choose nursing homes virtually
Hospitals are restricting visitors, including family members who often play an important role in helping patients select a nursing home or other post-acute provider. Nursing homes are also no longer allowing tours that would normally take place. In response, CarePort has enabled hospitals to share nursing home options with families via text message or email. Family members, who otherwise would be on-site, can see an interactive guide that includes virtual tours and pictures to help their loved ones select the right post-acute provider.
Given CarePort’s extensive access to robust acute and post-acute data across its national network of providers, the COVID-19 Transitions of Care Hub will continue to monitor trends and share follow-up observations with the hope that this serves as a valuable resource to ensure safe and effective transitions of care for COVID-19 patients.
“The COVID-19 pandemic presents unchartered territory for hospital and post-acute providers, and CarePort and Allscripts are supporting our partners’ most pressing needs in the fight against this disease,” said Allscripts Chief Executive Officer Paul Black. “Leveraging the largest network of connected acute and post-acute providers, CarePort technology is already being used on the front lines to support safe and efficient patient transitions during the COVID-19 outbreak.”
Visit CarePort’s COVID-19 Transitions of Care Hub at www.CovidTOC.com for critical insights updated in real-time.
