Winning back-to-back titles is no easy task. Neither are “threepeats.” But what do you call winning seven titles in a row? ChristianaCare, which recently was named the “Most Wired” Healthcare Technology Leader for the seventh consecutive year by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), sees it as another day of work for home.
“We really believe that high-quality care can happen anywhere outside the four walls of a hospital or doctor’s office,” Sarah Schenck, MD, FACP, medical director of virtualist medicine for ChristianaCare’s Center for Virtual Health, told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse. “Care should go to the patient and not the reverse. We need to stop expecting patients to come to one of our buildings when they need care. It’s really up to us to go to them.”
ChristianaCare is a not-for-profit regional healthcare system based in Wilmington, DE. The “Most Wired” recognition highlighted the system’s success in launching its Hospital Care at Home program, which aims to streamline the patient experience, handling everything from registration to prescription intake. Not only does this make things easier for the patient, but it also reduces the burden on the caregiver. Instead of relying on a single in-person nurse, ChristianaCare patients have access to their virtual acute care nursing program.
“[Patients] still have their in-person nurse who’s working in partnership with the virtual nurse. A lot of the patient education can be done virtually,” Schenck said. “We also use a secure base texting platform to text with our patients in real time. Patients can reach out to their care team through text and get real-time responses for their care. So our patients have that immediate access to their caregivers and our caregivers like to be connected to our patients in that way.”
In addition to providing care in the comfort of patients’ homes, ChristianaCare also runs mobile health units to bring care to underserved communities and sets up shop in local community centers. Because of the program, some Wilmington residents are now able to access their healthcare from the same place they play bingo. While seven consecutive award wins is nice, the ChristianaCare team has their eyes on the more important prize: making quality healthcare accessible.
“[Health equity] is very important to us and we spend a lot of time going out into the community to partner with other community service organizations to essentially earn the trust of our neighbors,” Schenck said. “When the vans pack up at the end of the day, our care doesn’t go away. We stay connected using technology to our patients outside of the van.”
Home Sweet Home is a feature appearing Mondays in McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse. The story focuses on a heartwarming, entertaining or quirky happening affecting the world of home care. If you have a topic that might be worthy of the spotlight in Home Sweet Home, please email Special Projects Coordinator Foster Stubbs at [email protected].
