Incremental Benefit of a Home Visit Following Discharge for Patients with Multiple Chronic Conditions Receiving Transitional Care.

Transitional care management is effective at reducing hospital readmissions among patients with multiple chronic conditions, but evidence is lacking on the relative benefit of the home visit as a component of transitional care. The sample included non-dual Medicaid recipients with multiple chronic conditions enrolled in Community Care of North Carolina (CCNC), with a hospital discharge between July 2010 and December 2012. Using claims data and care management records, this study retrospectively examined whether home visits reduced the odds of 30-day readmission compared to less intensive transitional care support, using multivariate logistic regression to control for demographic and clinical characteristics. Additionally, the researchers examined group differences within clinical risk strata on inpatient admissions and total cost of care in the 6 months following hospital discharge. Of 35,174 discharges receiving transitional care from a CCNC care manager, 21% (N = 7468) included a home visit. In multivariate analysis, home visits significantly reduced the odds of readmission within 30 days (odds ratio = 0.52, 95% confidence interval 0.48-0.57). At the 6-month follow-up, home visits were associated with fewer inpatient admissions within 4 of 6 clinical risk strata, and lower total costs of care for highest risk patients (average per member per month cost difference $970; P < 0.01). For complex chronic patients, home visits reduced the likelihood of a 30-day readmission by almost half compared to less intensive forms of nurse-led transitional care support. Higher risk patients experienced the greatest benefit in terms of number of inpatient admissions and total cost of care in the 6 months following discharge. (Population Health Management 2016;19:163-170).

North Carolina surgical workforce trends.

Between 1997 and 2008, the number of general surgeons in North Carolina increased and shifted demographically, geographically, and by specialty. However, surgeon numbers--overall and by specialty--do not appear to have increased as quickly or to have shifted in the same ways as North Carolina's general population.