A Philadelphia-based Perelman School of Medicine study assessed the Community Health Worker model, which reduced patient admissions and yielded better outcomes for hospitalized patients. Researchers found it may also yield promising results for patients in outpatient settings, according to AJMC.
Researchers conducted qualitative in-depth interviews with 21 chronically ill, uninsured or Medicaid outpatients from low-income zip codes and 30 members of their primary care practice staff.
Then, the researcher devised an outpatient manual for providers to administer treatments outside of the hospital setting, hire additional staff and work with primary care facilities in Philadelphia to implement the CHW model in their facilities.
The outpatient version of CHW is titled Individualized Management for Patient-Centered Targets.
Here are four things know:
1. With the IMPaCT approach, residents are recruited and trained as community health workers who work with patients and their providers to set health goals.
2. The residents also help patients develop individualized plans, and help those patients achieve those goals laid out in the plans.
3. In IMPaCT, patients focused on one of their chronic conditions.
4. Patients were provided access to additional support through a weekly clinic-based support group.
"Our findings are relevant to the growing interest in community health worker programs across the United States," said Shreya Kangovi, MD, MS, executive director of the Penn Center for Community Health Workers and the lead author of the study. "But many payers and provider organizations are tempted to use a trial-and-error approach. This results in a lot of reinventing the wheel, which is costly, time-consuming and leaves programs open to making common mistakes. Our study describes a way to balance fidelity and fit."
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