Press release

Collective Medical Helps Providers Support and Collaborate on Homeless Patients

0
Sponsored by Businesswire

Collective
Medical
, delivering the nation’s most effective network for care
collaboration, today announced an initiative further enabling hospitals
and care teams to support the unique needs of their homeless patients.
The Collective Platform now empowers care teams to develop care plans
for coordinating services and facilitates post-discharge collaboration
on homeless patients — starting in the state of California.

In January 2018, the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development
reported that about
130,000 homeless people are living in California. Nearly 50,000
of these people reside in Los Angeles County, and 69 percent of this
homeless population is unsheltered — the highest rate in the nation.
Lack of insurance, transportation, and overall stability cause homeless
populations to use EDs as their primary or only source of health care.

California legislature developed Senate
Bill 1152 as part of the state’s response to
homelessness
. Effective July 1 of this year, SB1152 requires
hospitals to further enhance services and processes for homeless
individuals. One requirement involves developing a written plan for
coordinating services and referrals before discharging homeless patients
and improved coordination with community-based providers. Collective
facilitates seamless collaboration between behavioral health facilities,
hospital teams, social service agencies, and other health care providers
— supporting the requirements of SB1152. Homeless service providers in
California have already joined the Collective Network in support of
Whole Person Care programs. These providers contribute patient
information to the network, assist critical transitions of care,
redirect patients to proper care channels, and comply with SB1152
requirements for patient discharge.

“Homelessness is increasingly pervasive in California and as many are
forced to use the Emergency Department as their ongoing source of
primary care which is not optimal for continuity or the best use of
these limited resources,” says Glenn Raup RN, PhD, MBA, MSN, CEN,
executive director of emergency, behavioral and observation services at
St. Joseph Hospital of Orange. “You really need to look at social
determinants when it comes to helping these patients — living conditions
significantly impact holistic health. We’re looking forward to
collaborating with other hospitals and local homeless service providers
to truly help these patients.”

The Collective Platform is a real-time, risk-adjusted event notification
and care collaboration tool fueled by collaboration between emergent,
inpatient, post-acute, mental and behavioral, community and ambulatory
settings, as well as stakeholders in ACOs and health plans.

“We’ve been using the Collective Platform to address the underlying
social determinants of health of high utilizers,” says Dr. Ronn Berrol,
medical director of emergency services at the Summit Medical Center of
Alta Bates/Summit Medical Center. “Many of these patients are struggling
with homelessness, so knowing that information is critical when
developing and coordinating care plans.”

Providers have seen transformative outcomes using the Collective
Platform. According to an article published by Healthcare
IT News
, Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital in Vancouver, Washington,
reduced its all-cause 30-day readmission rate by 24.9 percent and the
overall ED visit rate by 81 percent for identified high utilizers.

“Supporting vulnerable patients with complex needs is core to our
mission,” says Chris Klomp, CEO of Collective Medical. “SB1152 provides
an opportunity for Collective to help care teams throughout a community
better identify and then collaborate on a shared plan of care that
aligns resources across the continuum to truly address the underlying
social determinants that impact the needs of individuals who struggle
with housing security. We are grateful to get to be a part of this
important effort alongside our health system and provider partners.”

Learn more about Collective’s impact at www.collectivemedical.com.

ABOUT COLLECTIVE MEDICAL

Collective Medical empowers care teams to improve patient outcomes by
closing the communication gaps that undermine patient care. With a
nationwide network engaged with every national health plan in the
country, hundreds of hospitals and health systems and tens of thousands
of providers, Collective’s system-agnostic platform is trusted by care
teams to identify at-risk and complex patients and facilitate actionable
collaboration to make better care decisions and improve outcomes. Based
in Salt Lake City, Collective is proven to streamline transitions of
care, improve coordination across diverse care teams, and reduce
medically unnecessary hospital admissions. Learn more at www.collectivemedical.com
and Twitter,
Facebook,
and LinkedIn.