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Metrics: Post-Acute Care, Boston, MA

Case Studies

Challenge

Three years ago, a leading academic institution in the Boston area ceased offering a senior health program due to difficulties in maintaining the program’s scalability and sustainability. The question remained, however, about how to build robust medical services and deliver treatment and care to their skilled nursing patients.

Solution

The hospital reached out to IPC Healthcare (IPC) to develop a Boston-based post-acute practice at three of their key skilled nursing facilities (SNFs).

IPC’s objective for the project was to improve readmissions as well as length-of-stay (LOS) metrics by 20 percent and to create a sustainable clinical model that focused on growth. To do this, IPC implemented the following practice standards in order to improve underlying process measures.

  • Consistent Physician Presence: Medical staff coverage 7 days per week and 24/7 physician call coverage
  • Increased Communication: Weekly medical team meetings, warm hand-offs, and multidisciplinary rounds
  • Identification of High-Risk Populations: Conduct weekly high-risk patient rounds with acute care partners
  • Medical Staff Availability: Maintain sustainable physician and nurse practitioner (NP) patient visit ratio
  • Improved Tracking of Metrics: Lower LOS and readmission rates subsequently increase referrals

Results

We started the project with a two-provider team, and due to the program’s success it grew to more than 45 providers. By implementing the solutions above, the program developed a robust rounding service that became a collaborative physician – NP/PA rounding model that increased communications between the program care team, case managers, and primary care providers in the community. Adhering to the three principles of taking care of the patient, the facility, and the provider, IPC achieved an exceptionally strong post-acute practice in Boston and successfully penetrated the extremely competitive market. In the end, the hospital had the clinically strong and scalable practice it had originally envisioned.

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For more on how IPC was able to improve metrics in Boston, read the full case study by clicking Download below.