Making Health Care Safer for Older Adults Receiving Skilled Home Health Care Services After Hospital Discharge

Using a participatory ergonomics process, the investigators will pilot a bundle of interventions developed by stakeholders in a prospective cohort study to test feasibility. The study settings and inclusion criteria will be the same as used in the investigators' initial trial: cohort study of older adults (aged ≥ 65 years) experiencing a hospital-to-home health transition to the study sites, regardless of diagnosis. The investigators will implement the bundle with the assistance of home health provider teams at the study sites. The investigators will select other home health provider teams that provide care to similar populations to serve as concurrent controls. To provide historical control data, the investigators will also collect data on patient outcomes for the past year prior to the implementation of the bundle. Intervention refinement teams (IRTs) will meet to assess the impact of the bundle.

The investigators will retrospectively extract the dependent variables going back one year before implementation of the bundle (baseline) up until one year after implementation for both intervention and control groups. Outcome measures will include 30-day emergency department (ED) visit use or re-hospitalization, and mortality. The investigators will collect independent variables (Hospital-to-Home Health Transition Quality Index (H3TQ)) and measures of bundle impact from the intervention group. The investigators developed measures of bundle impact after a review of related existing measures. The investigators will collect measures of bundle impact in two ways: (1) through online surveys sent to all home health providers and older adults involved in the bundle at the end of the study period (30 days) using a Likert-type response scale; and (2) focus groups of home health providers and older adults.

The investigators will conduct two focus groups at the study site of: (1) the home health providers implementing the bundle (approximately 5 at each site, 10 total), and (2) a subset of the older adults/caregivers receiving the bundle. The investigators will randomly select approximately 10 older adults/caregivers at each site (20 total) and call these older adults/caregivers for an invitation to participate. Focus groups will discuss on key outcomes important in implementation research, which are distinct from system and clinical treatment outcomes and serve as indicators of implementation success: (1) acceptability, (2) appropriateness, (3) identification of barriers to implementation, and (4) analysis of impact on workflow. Focus groups will last 1.5 hours and will be audio-taped and transcribed. At least two researchers will independently review each focus group transcript and identify themes and sub-themes related to each of the four measures of bundle impact.

The investigators will compare dependent variables as follows: (1) pre-post comparison of dependent variables with historical controls for intervention and control groups separately; and (2) concurrent comparison of dependent variables between intervention and control groups.

For this feasibility study, the investigators anticipate having approximately 100 patients in the intervention group over the one-year pilot period.

Inclusion criteria

Older Adults

• Aged ≥ 65 years
• Can speak English or Spanish
• Is capable of assent
• Hospitalized on a medical or surgical service
• Referred for skilled home healthcare services (home health) after hospital discharge or skilled nursing facility (SNF) discharge

Family Caregivers

• Unpaid
• Assist the older adult with at least one healthcare task. Healthcare tasks include the following activities: managing health care bills, scheduling medical appointments, getting to and from medical appointments, getting medical equipment, getting services, getting information, following a diet, obtaining medication, planning a medication schedule, taking medication, and deciding to stop or change medication.

Home Health Providers

• Employed by participating sites
• Directly provide care to, or arrange services for, an eligible older adult

Exclusion criteria

• Community referrals to home health: Older adults referred to home health from the ambulatory setting (e.g., outpatient clinic) and without a recent hospitalization or SNF stay.