New Lenox, Ill.-based Silver Cross Hospital is collaborating with paramedics from seven local fire departments to launch a mobile integrated health program that aims to help patients with chronic conditions manage their health from their own homes.
The program, approved by the Illinois Department of Public Health, enables any participating primary care physician, case manager or emergency room physician at Silver Cross Hospital to request to have a patient with multiple chronic conditions or a recent joint replacement enroll in the program, which is free to the patient.
During scheduled home visits, a paramedic will perform physician exams, assessments and home safety checks. The paramedics will also provide patient education and medical care services, and connect patients with community resources, if necessary.
To ensure continuity of care, paramedics will collaborate with the patient's primary care physician and include medical information from the home visit in the patient's medical record.
Fourteen percent of patients who qualify for the program at Silver Cross Hospital are currently readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge, according to the hospital. The program aims to help these patients take preventive health steps to reduce the risk of readmission.
"We know that it can be difficult for patients with chronic diseases to properly manage their health once they are back home," David Mikolajczak, DO, emergency medicine specialist and medical director of the emergency medical services system at Silver Cross Hospital, said in a news release. "By having a licensed paramedic go out to a patient's home, sit with them and talk through how to best manage their disease, we will be better able to give them the tools they need to improve their health."