Home Centered Care Institute Awarded Grant to Bolster Home-Based Primary Care Workforce

The John A. Hartford Foundation grant to support education of providers and practices focuses on the most complex patients

SCHAUMBURG, IL, November 11, 2019 — The Home Centered Care Institute (HCCI) has been awarded a $385,000 grant to continue educating home-based primary care providers and practices by The John A. Hartford Foundation (JAHF). This award is part of a larger project, Moving and Scaling Home-based Primary Care Phase II: Quality, Training, and Advocacy, in which The John A. Hartford Foundation, a national private philanthropy dedicated to improving the care of older adults, is investing a total of $1.6M over the next three years.

The larger project also includes grants for a home-based primary care national practice directory being developed by the American Academy of Home Care Medicine (AAHCM) and a qualified clinical data registry and national learning collaborative for home-based primary care and palliative care through Massachusetts General Hospital and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The overall goal of the three coordinated projects is to deliver measurably improved care that will lead to improved outcomes for home-limited patients and their caregivers.

Four million vulnerable adults in the U.S. have difficulty obtaining, or are completely unable to access, office-based primary care because they are frail, chronically ill, functionally limited and/or homebound or home-limited. These individuals often use the emergency room instead of visiting a primary care office, resulting in escalating costs and poor health outcomes.

“With 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 every day and our population living longer with more chronic diseases, home-based primary care provides the best solution for a growing number of patients. When home-based primary care is integrated into a value-based health care system, it both improves patient outcomes and lowers health care costs,” explains Dr. Thomas Cornwell, CEO of HCCI, founder of Northwestern Medicine’s HomeCare Physicians and a practicing house call doctor. “In terms of costs, the most complex patients are also often the highest utilizers of acute care, constituting the majority of the 5 percent of U.S. patients who account for 50 percent of health care costs nationwide.”

During the next three years, HCCI will work with key partners to further develop and deliver HCCI’s education and training offerings around clinical and practice management topics. These offerings include live workshops, and online courses and technical assistance, along with access to the HCCIntelligence™ Resource Center, provided at no charge and also funded in part by the grant from The John A. Hartford Foundation. The Resource Center includes webinars, virtual office hours, and a hotline, as well as tools and tip sheets. The three-year HCCI project will also focus on establishing HCCI Practice Excellence Partners™, leading house call programs across the country offering opportunities for shadowing.

“We are very pleased to once again have the support of The John A. Hartford Foundation,” Dr. Cornwell added. “With this grant, we will provide critical education for providers and practices throughout the country, which will ultimately result in more patients having access to the care they need. Most important, these are often patients who, if HBPC weren’t available, wouldn’t be seeing a primary care provider at all.”

“Home-based primary care is age-friendly care, and it’s a clear win for payers, providers, patients, and family caregivers,” said Terry Fulmer, PhD, RN, FAAN, president of The John A. Hartford Foundation. “We are proud to work with HCCI and our other partners to develop well-trained interdisciplinary primary care teams that help our most vulnerable older patients stay out of hospital and skilled nursing beds and exactly where they want to be… in the home.”

Home Centered Care Institute
The Home Centered Care Institute (HCCI) is a national non-profit organization focused on advancing home-based primary care to ensure that medically complex and homebound or home-limited patients have access to high-quality care in their home. HCCI works with leading academic medical centers, health systems and industry experts to raise awareness of and advocate for expanding the model by growing the home-based primary care workforce through education and training and developing a research-based model for sustainable house call program implementation and growth. For more information, visit www.hccinstitute.org and follow @HCCInstitute.

The John A. Hartford Foundation

The John A. Hartford Foundation, based in New York City, is a private, nonpartisan philanthropy dedicated to improving the care of older adults. Established in 1929, the Foundation has three priority areas: creating age-friendly health systems, supporting family caregiving, and improving serious illness and end-of-life care. For more information, visit www.johnahartford.org and follow @johnahartford

Media Contact:

James Warda
Home Centered Care Institute (HCCI)
jwarda@hccinstitute.org
847-204-2555

Education

HCCI offers classroom workshops, online courses, and practicum experiences for individuals and practice groups to enhance their knowledge and skills in home-based primary care.

HCCIntelligence™

We recognize the numerous challenges that can be encountered by home-based primary care (HBPC) providers. Through the HCCIntelligence Resource Center, we offer free access to knowledgeable experts and timely guidance.

Consulting

Relationship-focused, results-driven. As a nationally recognized authority on clinical and operational best practices for home-based care, HCCI helps organizations build sustainable home-based primary care programs.

Research

HCCI closely monitors and shares published studies relevant to the field and reports on findings and outcomes – in particular, those that contribute to the business case and identification of best practices in HBPC.