Home visit program saw big drop in hospitalizations

Hospitalization rates plummeted 61 percent, and emergency room visits fell 64 percent, among a group of patients who received home visits from nurse practitioners and graduate students during a six-month period in 2016, according to a University of Rhode Island College of Nursing study.

The home visits to financially disadvantaged patients with chronic health issues were part of a three-year, $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Public Health Service’s Health Resources and Services Administration, awarded to Nursing Professor Denise Coppa in 2015. The project established academic and clinical partnerships with Providence Community Health Centers and Thundermist Health Centers in Rhode Island.

Nurse practitioners from Thundermist and nurse practitioner students from URI visited 82 patients over a six-month period in 2016, recording health data that included hospital admissions and emergency room visits. In fall 2016, researchers compared their findings to data from the same group of patients during the six months prior.

It was so successful that Thundermist now plans to continue its home visit program, Coppa says. Meanwhile the project team is analyzing state records for emergency room and hospitalization costs for the general population to determine the potential economic benefit from extending the program. “The savings could be significant,” Coppa said.

Rhode Island has a shortage of primary-care health providers, leaving 67 percent of care needs unmet in Rhode Island, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration. Licensed primary-care nurse practitioners are fully authorized to diagnose and treat acute and chronic health conditions in Rhode Island; the URI-led project is preparing more than 100 students at the master’s or doctoral level, with enrollment doubling this year.