As a primary care physician, your patients are your world. Each one presents a healthcare puzzle to which you masterfully help them solve. However, ensuring that high-risk patients with urgent care demands have access to the timely and affordable medical attention that they need—when they need it—has remained a long-standing source of frustration for PCPs. Fortunately, there’s a new way that primary care physicians are improving access to non-emergent healthcare and lowering costs for their high-risk patients. The solution: Working with DispatchHealth. DispatchHealth brings high-quality, acute care directly to your patients’ homes when urgent health needs arise during busy clinic days or after hours, or to help your elderly or immunocompromised patients avoid unnecessary exposure to individuals with contagious illnesses. For complete continuity of care, these modern-day house call providers will also fully document your patients’ visits and send detailed clinical notes directly to you.
Provider Practice Integration
DispatchHealth extends the reach of your practice by offering extensive clinical capabilities that allow for definitive, acute care in the home. Our medical teams are on-call seven days a week during extended hours and possess the expertise and resources to address a broad spectrum of medical concerns, from the common to the complex, in patients ages 3 months and older. For example, in-home high-acuity care could be appropriate for high-risk patients who:
- Are at risk of contracting contagious and potentially life-threatening illnesses like COVID-19, such as seniors, immunocompromised individuals, and people with asthma
- Can’t receive prompt medical care from their primary care physician due to after-hour needs
- Have trouble finding transportation or who have difficulty leaving the home due to mobility limitations, memory care diagnoses, or severe illness
- Are experiencing acute symptoms due to a chronic illness but don’t require an expensive ER setting
- Tend to heavily rely on emergency services for lower acuity needs
Chances are, as a primary care physician, you’ve experienced these circumstances with one or more of your high-risk patients. By partnering with an at-home acute medical service like DispatchHealth, PCPs can help reduce unnecessary ER visits and readmissions among their patient population and increase their access to timely care.
The Value of On-Demand Care Programs
Each DispatchHealth medical team consists of either a physician assistant or nurse practitioner along with a DispatchHealth medical technician (DHMT) and an on-call physician. The medical kits DispatchHealth brings to a patient visit contain nearly all of the tools and technologies found in an ER, allowing the medical team to perform a variety of advanced tests—including screening for COVID-19 and other contagious illnesses for high-risk individuals—and technologies that allow for on-scene:
- Urinalysis and blood draw
- 12-lead EKG testing
- IV fluids
- Digital X-ray imaging
- Nebulizer treatment
- Catheter insertion
- Enemas
- Gastrostomy tube replacement
- Bacteria culture testing
- Laceration repair
- Immobilization
We’ve also updated our protocols to ensure the safety of both our staff and our patients as the healthcare landscape continues to evolve. But the value of this on-demand care program doesn’t stop there. By working with DispatchHealth, primary care physicians are also benefiting from:
Community Engagement
DispatchHealth has reengineered pre- and post-acute care delivery by taking a unique patient perspective that prioritizes community engagement. This on-demand care program links core primary care practices through an in-network web of communication that connects all aspects of the patient’s medical needs and visit details.
Risk Stratification Technologies
By using a patent-pending proprietary tool that right-sizes acute care delivery, DispatchHealth ensures that patients are receiving the best care plan in a timely manner. This value-based program has significantly reduced non-urgent ER trips, taking the stress and expense out of the picture.
Lower Healthcare Costs
Just as you do, we believe same-day medical care should be accessible to everyone. That’s why DispatchHealth partners with leading insurance companies, including Medicare and Medicaid, to provide high-quality and affordable care within a patient’s home. This is significantly less expensive than a traditional emergency room visit. Following the in-home visit, DispatchHealth will bill the patient’s insurance directly; the out-of-pocket cost is comparable to the cost of an urgent care visit (most patients pay between $5 and $50).
Innovative Healthcare Starts Here
At DispatchHealth, our mission is to provide a full, in-home care continuum that is capable of delivering high-acuity medical services and addressing the social needs of at-risk patients. By lowering costs for your patients and providing value-based care, we are helping primary care physicians join the on-demand movement—improving patient outcomes and overall satisfaction. Benefiting from working together is as easy as:
- Referring a patient by requesting care. DispatchHealth will connect with the patient, obtain verbal consent for the visit, and finish the onboarding process. We will then provide the patient with an estimated time of arrival and will dispatch a team.
- Letting DispatchHealth extend your patient care. DistpatchHealth’s medical teams will arrive at your patients’ homes within a few hours. Here, we’ll be ready to treat simple to complex medical conditions and navigate challenging social environments by delivering acute care in a comfortable and familiar home setting. Our medical teams are commonly called upon to assist patients with health concerns like:
- COPD exacerbations
- Cellulitis
- Migraines
- Dehydration
- Edema
- Bed sores and pressure ulcers
- Infected wounds
- Crohn’s disease exacerbations
- Shingles
- Severe cough and croup
- Diverticulitis
We also adhere to the most stringent of hygiene protocols to keep our patients and staff safe from highly infectious diseases—for instance, all equipment and vehicles are thoroughly sanitized in between appointments and practitioners are equipped with appropriate personal protective gear.
- Enjoying a complete continuum of care. DispatchHealth fully documents your patients’ visits and sends clinical documentation back to you; for immediate primary care follow-ups, you’ll receive a prompt call. Additionally, DispatchHealth follows up with every patient within three days and refers back to you for additional care as needed, bridging the gap between patients and PCPs.
To learn more about ways that primary care physicians are bettering access to healthcare and lowering costs for their patients by partnering with DispatchHealth, contact us today!
