Salt Lake City, Utah —June 4, 2019— Collective Medical, delivering the nation’s most effective network for care collaboration, today announced an initiative further enabling hospitals and care teams to support the unique needs of their homeless patients. The Collective Platform now empowers care teams to develop care plans for coordinating services and facilitates post-discharge collaboration on homeless patients—starting in the state of California.
In January 2018, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that about 130,000 homeless people are living in California. Nearly 50,000 of these people reside in Los Angeles County, and 69 percent of this homeless populations is unsheltered—the highest rate in the nation. Lack of insurance, transportation, and overall stability cause homeless populations to use EDs as their primary or only source of health care.
California legislature developed Senate Bill 1152 as part of the state’s response to homelessness. Effective July 1 of this year, SB1152 requires hospitals to further enhance services and processes for homeless individuals. One requirement involves developing a written plan for coordinating services and referrals before discharging homeless patients and improved coordination with community-based providers. Collective facilitates seamless collaboration between behavioral health facilities, hospital teams, social service agencies, and other health care providers—supporting the requirements of SB1152. Homeless service providers in California have already joined the Collective Network in support of Whole Person Care programs. These providers contribute patient information to the network, assist critical transitions of care, redirect patients to proper care channels, and comply with SB1152 requirements for patient discharge.
“Homelessness is increasingly pervasive in California and as many are forced to use the Emergency Department as their ongoing source of primary care which is not optimal for continuity or the best use of these limited resources,” says Glenn Raup RN, PhD, MBA, MSN, CEN, executive director of emergency, behavioral and observation services at St. Joseph Hospital of Orange. “You really need to look at social determinants when it comes to helping these patients—living conditions significantly impact holistic health. We’re looking forward to collaborating with other hospitals and local homeless service providers to truly help these patients.”
The Collective Platform is a real-time, risk-adjusted event notification and care collaboration tool fueled by collaboration between emergent, inpatient, post-acute, mental and behavioral, community and ambulatory settings, as well as stakeholders in ACOs and health plans.
“We’ve been using the Collective Platform to address the underlying social determinants of health of high utilizers,” says Dr. Ronn Berrol, medical director of emergency services at the Summit Medical Center of Alta Bates/Summit Medical Center. “Many of these patients are struggling with homelessness, so knowing that information is critical when developing and coordinating care plans.”
Providers have seen transformative outcomes using the Collective Platform. According to an article published by Healthcare IT News, Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital in Vancouver, Washington, reduced its all-cause 30-day readmission rate by 24.9 percent and the overall ED visit rate by 81 percent for identified high utilizers.
“Supporting vulnerable patients with complex needs is core to our mission,” says Chris Klomp, CEO of Collective Medical. “SB1152 provides an opportunity for Collective to help care teams throughout a community better identify and then collaborate on a shared plan of care that aligns resources across the continuum to truly address the underlying social determinants that impact the needs of individuals who struggle with housing security. We are grateful to get to be a part of this important effort alongside our health system and provider partners.”
Learn more about Collective’s impact at www.collectivemedical.com.
ABOUT COLLECTIVE MEDICAL
Collective Medical empowers care teams to improve patient outcomes by closing the communication gaps that undermine patient care. With a nationwide network engaged with every national health plan in the country, hundreds of hospitals and health systems and tens of thousands of providers, Collective’s system-agnostic platform is trusted by care teams to identify at-risk and complex patients and facilitate actionable collaboration to make better care decisions and improve outcomes. Based in Salt Lake City, Collective is proven to streamline transitions of care, improve coordination across diverse care teams, and reduce medically unnecessary hospital admissions. Learn more at www.collectivemedical.com and Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
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Media Contacts
For Collective Medical
Erin Van Zomeren
Media Relations
(385) 275-6606
erin.vanzomeren@collectivemedical.com