A recent study of a voluntary program from Intermountain Healthcare has shown that engaged family caregivers lead to a 65% reduction in avoidable 30-day hospital readmissions. The program, called Partners in Healing, engaged family members during the hospitalization of a loved one, providing education on basic care tasks and checklists of what to do after discharge.
“The vast majority of families like to have something to do and they like to participate in patient care. They’re often the most motivated member of the care team,” says Van De Graaff. “We’ve found that families not only want to promote healing, but patients benefit from someone who knows their preferences, and the result is, the rate of readmissions is reduced after patients are discharged from the hospital.”
The methods and outcomes of this study underscore the importance of a platform such as genusConnect in scaling methods for increasing education, training, and engagement beyond high-touch pilots.