Building on its success using telehealth to reduce preventable readmissions with home-based Medicare beneficiaries, Centura Health at Home (CHAH)—the home care unit of Centura Health—augmented its program by integrating its existing service with a clinical call center staffed by registered nurses who provide telephonic telehealth services. Results from the year-long program demonstrated successful outcomes in terms of reducing 30-day rehospitalizations, increasing patients' quality of life, improving patients' self-management skills and education, and reducing the frequency of home visits from registered nurses. Centura’s experience indicates that restructuring home service coordination and educating clinical call center nurses on chronic disease management are key to a successful program. The successful integration of the two programs has led to the establishment of telehealth as the standard of care at CHAH.
Note: These case studies were based on publicly available information and self-reported data provided by the case study institutions. The Commonwealth Fund is not an accreditor of health care organizations or systems, and the inclusion of an institution in the Fund's case study series is not an endorsement by the Fund for receipt of health care from the institution.