Impact of Program Changes Including Telemedicine and Telephonic Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Preventing 30-Day Hospital Readmission for Patients in a Care Transitions Program.

INTRODUCTION/OBJECTIVES: To describe health outcomes of older adults enrolled in the Mayo Clinic Care Transitions (MCCT) program before and during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to unenrolled patients. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of adults (age >60 years) in the MCCT program compared to a usual care control group from January 1, 2019, to September 20, 2022. The MCCT program involved a home, telephonic, or telemedicine visit by an advanced care provider. Outcomes were 30- and 180-day hospital readmissions, emergency department (ED) visit, and mortality. We performed a subgroup analysis after March 1, 2020 (during the pandemic). We analyzed data with Cox proportional hazards regression models and hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% CIs. RESULTS: Of the 1,012 patients total, 354 were in the MCCT program and 658 were in the usual care group with a mean (SD) age of 81.1 (9.1) years overall. Thirty-day readmission was 16.9% (60 of 354) for MCCT patients and 14.7% (97 of 658) for usual care patients (HR, 1.24; 95% CI, 0.88-1.75). During the pandemic, the 30-day readmission rate was 15.1% (28 of 186) for MCCT patients and 14.9% (68 of 455) for usual care patients (HR, 1.20; 95% CI, 0.75-1.91). There was no difference between groups for 180-day hospitalization, 30- or 180-day ED visit, and 30- or 180-day mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Numerous factors involving patients, providers, and health care delivery systems during the pandemic most likely contributed to these findings.

Design and Implementation of a Skilled Nursing Facility COVID-19 Unit.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has challenged the health care system's capacity to care for acutely ill patients. In a collaborative partnership between a health system and a skilled nursing facility (SNF), we developed and implemented an SNF COVID-19 unit to allow expedited hospital discharge of COVID-positive older adults who are clinically improving, and to provide an alternative to hospitalization for those who require SNF care but do not require or necessarily desire aggressive disease-modifying interventions.

A mobile unit overcomes the challenges to monoclonal antibody infusion for COVID-19 in skilled care facilities.

BACKGROUND: Residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities are at increased risk for severe coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) but may not be able to access monoclonal antibody therapies offered at outpatient infusion centers due to frailty and logistical issues. We describe a mobile monoclonal antibody infusion program for patients with COVID-19 in skilled nursing facilities and provide descriptive data on its outcomes. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Collaboration between Mayo Clinic and skilled nursing facilities in Southeast Minnesota was developed to administer anti-spike monoclonal antibodies under the FDA Emergency Use Authorization. PARTICIPANTS: Seventy five residents of skilled nursing facilities at high risk of COVID-19 complications. EXPOSURE: Emergency use treatment with bamlanivimab and casirivimab-imdevimab. MEASUREMENTS: Hospitalization and medically attended visits. RESULTS: The mobile infusion unit, staffed by Mayo Clinic Infusion Therapy registered nurses and supported by the skilled nursing facility staff, infused anti-spike monoclonal antibodies to 45 of 75 patients (average age, 77.8 years) in December 2020. The infusions occurred at an average of 4.3 days after COVID-19 diagnosis. Fourteen days after infusion, there were no deaths, two emergency department visits, and three hospitalizations, for a combined event rate of 11.1%. There was one reported adverse event. CONCLUSION: The implementation of a mobile infusion unit embedded in a collaborative process resulted in rapid infusion of monoclonal antibodies to high-risk COVID-19 patients in skilled nursing facilities, who would otherwise be unable to access the novel therapies. The therapies were well tolerated and appear beneficial. Further study is warranted to explore the scalability and efficacy of this program.

Development and Implementation of a Team-Based, Primary Care Delivery Model: Challenges and Opportunities.

In this article, we describe the implementation of a team-based care model during the first 2 years (2016-2017) after Mayo Clinic designed and built a new primary care clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The clinic was configured to accommodate a team-based care model that included complete colocation of clinical staff to foster collaboration, designation of a physician team manager to support a physician to advanced practice practitioner ratio of 1:2, expanded roles for registered nurses, and integration of clinical pharmacists, behavioral health specialists, and community specialists; this model was designed to accommodate the growth of nonvisit care. We describe the implementation of this team-based care model and the key metrics that were tracked to assess performance related to the quadruple aim of improving population health, improving patient experience, reducing cost, and supporting care team's work life.