Giving Compass' Take:

• Patrick Broadwater explains how researchers found that Home Health care - specifically in-home physical therapy - is linked to fewer repeat hospital stays.

• How can funders work to expand access to home health care? Who in your community would benefit most from this type of intervention? 

• Learn about the increasing care burden as our population ages. 

Older adults who receive one to two hours of in-home physical therapy are up to 82 percent less likely to face hospital readmission 60 days after discharge, research finds.

For the study, which appears in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, researchers examined the impact of specific services in Medicare-certified home health care (HHC) programs, such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, and skilled nursing, on subsequent re-hospitalization among older patients.

Each year, more than 3.3 million hospital readmissions occur in the United States, costing more than $41 billion. Older patients are particularly at risk for post-discharge functional decline and re-hospitalization, which occur in one-third of Medicare patients within 90 days of hospital discharge.

To prevent unplanned re-hospitalization, medical personnel refer older patients with high medical complexity to post-acute services, such as HHC.

Previous research shows that HHC improves physical function and reduces health care costs, but the current study is the first to systematically examine the relationships between specific services to find the threshold, or minimally effective, “dose” to avoid re-hospitalization.

Read the full article about Home Health Care by Patrick Broadwater at Futurity.