Patients Who Needed Emergent Care

Why is this important?

Patients may require urgent emergency care while they are receiving home health care due to a sudden, adverse development in their health or because of an injury.  They may require a trip to a physician or an emergency room.  Or, a physician may have to go to the patient’s home.

 

Sometimes, the need for urgent care cannot be avoided, even with good home health care.  A patient may be referred to emergency care by a home health care provider because it is the best way to treat a patient’s condition.  But, some emergency cases can be avoided if home health personnel check their patient’s conditions and find problems early.  That’s why they need to monitor how well their patients eat, drink and take their medicines.  They must communicate with the patient, their physician and anyone else providing the patient care, such as family members.

How WellSpan Compares

The following shows the percentage of patients who needed urgent care.

Unit of Measurement: Percentage

A lower score is better than a higher score.

What we are doing to improve our performance.

A VNA Home Health team meets regularly to focus on ways to prevent visits to emergency departments and unplanned physician visits for urgent care.  Intensive patient teaching on how to manage their disease, what symptoms to report immediately to the doctor and how to take medications correctly and completely are ways that show improvement in this outcome.