Most home care providers ready for flu pandemic
Be sure to include home care services in any pandemic response plans. Fortunately, more than half (53%) of the nation's home medical equipment and service providers have formal plans to respond to a pandemic flu, and another 23% have stockpiled N95 masks or other supplies related to a flu pandemic, according to a survey of 1,500 providers conducted at the beginning of the most recent flu scare.
Eighteen percent said they were working on a formal plan and expected to have one in place within the week. Two-thirds said they were coordinating or communicating with other organizations in their communities to prepare for a pandemic.
The survey of approximately 1,500 home medical or durable medical equipment providers was conducted by the American Association for Homecare. The 147 home care providers that responded collectively serve more than 2.5 million patients through more than 1,000 branch locations across 50 states, explains Tyler J. Wilson, president of the association based in Arlington, VA.
"Home-based care is a centerpiece of the national pandemic flu response, and in a pandemic situation, home medical equipment personnel will be on the front lines," he says. "Our members have experience responding to weather-related emergencies and power outages, which present risks to patients who require oxygen through devices that require electricity. A pandemic flu presents a different set of challenges, but the home medical sector has prepared for them."
Wilson says home health care workers can expect to be called on to provide care for two main populations of patients:
Those medical and surgical patients, not hospitalized because of the pandemic, who are well enough to be discharged early from hospitals to free up hospital beds for more severely ill patients.
Patients who become or already are dependent on home health care services (predominantly elderly people with chronic disease) and will continue to need in-home care during the influenza pandemic, regardless of whether they become infected with the influenza virus.
The demand for home health care services during a pandemic influenza outbreak is likely to exceed the home health care industry's current capacity to respond, Wilson says. Indeed, the overall surge capacity and preparedness levels of the home health care sector that will be necessary to respond effectively to a public health emergency, such as pandemic influenza, are significant unknowns, he notes.
Some home care providers have had pandemic flu plans and training dating back several years. Pat Northheimer, clinical director at Cole Care in Coudersport, PA, says his organization had a pandemic flu drill three years ago that involved hospitals and local EMS.
"Projections were made with a scenario that worsened each day," he says. "It was very helpful in showing us just how bad things could get if the projections were accurate. The drill went into great detail."
Two years ago, the American Association for Homecare participated, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, other federal agencies, and other health care associations, in a two-day panel to advise the federal government about the role of home-based care during a flu pandemic. The chief result of that panel is the publication, Home Health Care During an Influenza Pandemic: Issues and Resources, prepared by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which contains useful links to resources and detailed discussion of key issues related to planning, patient care, community and business response, legal questions, and work force challenges.
"In the event of an influenza pandemic, because of anticipated shortages of health care professionals and widespread implementation of social distancing techniques, it is expected that the large majority of individuals infected with the influenza virus will be cared for in the home by family members, friends, and other members of the community not by trained health care professionals," the report states.
(Editor's note: The publication is available online at www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/healthcare/homehealth.html.)
Sources
For more information on home care providers and the flu, contact:
Pat Northheimer, Clinical Director, Cole Care, Coudersport, PA. Telephone: (814) 274-7250.
Tyler J. Wilson, President, American Association for Homecare, Arlington, VA. Telephone: (703) 836-6263. Web site: www.aahomecare.org.
Be sure to include home care services in any pandemic response plans. Fortunately, more than half (53%) of the nation's home medical equipment and service providers have formal plans to respond to a pandemic flu, and another 23% have stockpiled N95 masks or other supplies related to a flu pandemic, according to a survey of 1,500 providers conducted at the beginning of the most recent flu scare.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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