Healthcare is evolving and placing greater emphasis on delivering quality patient care. New benchmarks set by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and innovative post-hospitalist programs have improved post-acute and long-term healthcare. However, the recently mandated standards have introduced changes and challenges that are causing many facilities to grapple with inefficient tactics and outdated processes.
Traditional centers’ Primary Care Physicians (PCPs) and nurse practitioners are overwhelmed and overworked, managing patients and residents from various facilities. These healthcare practitioners can’t meet mandated standards of care.
First Docs helps skilled nursing facilities and post-acute care centers implement post-hospitalist programs. Our dedicated, highly specialized, and knowledgeable physicians are committed to offering our healthcare partners, patients, and residents the best support and service, exceeding CMS standards.
A post-hospitalist program is a specialized model focusing on quality care for geriatric, chronic care, and rehabilitation patients and residents in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), assisted living facilities (ALFs), and other long-term care centers. The recognized model allows physicians to operate in a truly interdisciplinary post-acute environment, collaborating with all professionals to deliver proper care.
Post-hospitalist physicians work solely within a specialized facility. No juggling post-hospital caseloads, daily hospital rounds, and private practice patients every day.
A medical director, attending, or Primary Care Physician performs post-hospitalist medical services on-site for patients and residents in a post-acute center. The program prioritizes the needs of medically complex, high-risk residents and patients. Typical post-hospitalist services include:
Post-hospitalist and hospitalist program services are similar in that they both offer specialized, patient-centric services by a highly trained, dedicated on-site physician or medical director. Hospitalists typically work in acute hospital settings, while post-hospitalists serve:
Our post-hospitalist programs deliver a range of benefits. Here are four reasons why you should invest in these innovative programs.
In traditional models, hospitalist physicians are spread thin. They must divide their attention between their practice, acute hospitals, and post-acute centers. Due to busy schedules, patients in long-term and post-acute facilities sometimes do not see a Primary Care Physician for days or weeks.
Post-hospitalists see new patients within a day and are on standby for patients and residents within the post-acute care center’s office hours. This dedicated availability to post-acute and long-term facilities reduces the need to transport patients to other facilities for treatment and optimizes healthcare spending.
Post-hospitalists enhance patient care through proactive care plans. These plans reduce and prevent medical issues from arising, mapping individual needs and medication requirements. The post-hospitalist can share plans with caregivers, family, and relevant staff members for frictionless post-acute care.
Reactive care accounts for 75% of healthcare spending in the U.S. Post-hospitalist programs go beyond enhancing patient/resident care and decrease healthcare spending significantly.
Estimates show that 20% of patients are readmitted to hospitals within 30 days of discharge. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services spend $17 to $26 billion yearly on readmissions. Readmissions are often preventable if patients receive quality care and monitoring in a post-acute setting.
Post-hospitalist programs improve the level of care patients and residents receive, substantially reducing readmissions and associated fees. Minimizing readmission is vital to your post-acute facility, as CMS is increasingly taking steps to penalize centers with high readmission rates.
Healthcare regulations are ever-evolving. The responsibility to remain compliant is on your shoulders, and keeping up with the latest developments may be challenging for you and your hospitalist physicians and staff. Post-hospitalists minimize the challenges you face by making compliance with regulations simple.
Post-hospitalists are exclusively dedicated to offering patient/resident care and ensuring your post-acute center complies with regulations. These physicians have the capacity and training to improve specialized care and processes. The post-hospitalist identifies and remediates areas for improvement.
Traditional models that do not utilize post-hospitalist or SNFist program services lack the resources to deliver the quality care post-acute patients and residents need. Conventional facility physicians must juggle many responsibilities, making monitoring and developing proactive treatment plans challenging.
Without dedicated, quality post-acute care, patients and residents must visit emergency rooms when medical issues or illnesses arise. The visits often lead to readmission to acute facilities.
First Docs enables rehabilitation centers and post-acute facilities to deliver first-rate patient care, meet compliance standards, and prevent unnecessary acute hospital readmissions. We offer alternative solutions in a healthcare landscape where traditional approaches leave staff burnt out and spread thin and patients with intermittent care and support. Our knowledgeable and dedicated post-hospitalist physicians provide the very best service to our healthcare partners, patients, and residents.
We will help you fortify and streamline your post-hospitalist program — contact us online to learn more.