Improved vision in patients over the next decade will put more pressure on hospital resources, according to a study. Report Released Tuesday by Vizient and its subsidiary Sg2. Acuity was defined as a measure of the severity of a patient’s disease and the intensity of care needed.
As the number of Americans requiring inpatient chronic care increases, the improvement in vision will outweigh the number of hospitalizations and increase the length of hospital stays for patients. The report predicts that hospital admissions of adults will recover from pre-pandemic levels, but will only increase by 2% over the next decade. However, adult hospital days are expected to increase by 8% over the same period, and tertiary hospital days (referring to patients requiring highly specialized care) are expected to increase by 17%.
Longer hospital stays will exacerbate capacity constraints in hospitals, so they may need to fundamentally restructure their care delivery models.
“While case mix varies by hospital, this combination of hospital admissions, patient complexity, and length of stay may require healthcare organizations to rethink service line prioritization, service allocation and investment in home care programs,” Say Dr. Maddie McDowell, Sg2 Senior Head of Quality and Strategy and Medical Director.
Providing more care in patients’ homes will help ease the projected pressure on hospital capacity. The report predicts a 19 percent increase in home assessment and management visits, a 13 percent increase in home hospice care, and a 10 percent increase in home physical and occupational therapy. Home minor surgery, home nurse visits, and home chemotherapy are also expected to grow.
However, CMS has not yet decided on the status of permanent reimbursement for a key type of home care: the home hospital program.
CMS approved these programs to allow hospitals to provide acute-level care to patients in their own homes for temporary reimbursement through their in-home acute hospital care during the pandemic Waiver Program. The program has widely used Since its 2020 launch, 103 systems have now participated, including 237 hospitals in 36 states, according to CMS data last updated on June 1.
Despite high usage, CMS’ home hospital waiver program will expire at the end of the federal Covid-19 public health emergency. But this coverage needs to be made permanent to address the impending rise in patients’ vision, the report said.
In March, a panel of four members of Congress introduced a bipartisan Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act, which would extend CMS’ waiver program by two years beyond the public health emergency’s expiration date.The bill has Get support The American Hospital Association said such an extension would help hospitals care for more patients.
The AHA said the home hospital program “remains a reliable and impactful tool that provides effective care, improves patient satisfaction, and, for some patients, reduces recovery time.” The group said it is willing to work with Congress Partner with CMS to establish a permanent version of the program, as this style of care frees up hospital beds and often improves the patient experience.
McDowell noted that “while at-home care scalability is difficult,” hospitals need to prioritize efforts to redesign care early to avoid being caught off-guard by increased patient acuity.
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