Characterizing the high-risk homebound patients in need of nurse practitioner co-management

By providing more frequent provider visits, prompt responses to acute issues, and care coordination, nurse practitioner (NP) co-management has been beneficial for the care of chronically ill older adults. This paper describes the homebound patients with high symptom burden and healthcare utilization who were referred to an NP co-management intervention and outlines key features of the intervention. We compared demographic, clinical, and healthcare utilization data of patients referred for NP co-management within a large home-based primary care (HBPC) program (n = 87) to patients in the HBPC program not referred for co-management (n = 1027). A physician survey found recurrent hospitalizations to be the top reason for co-management referral and a focus group with nurses and social workers noted that co-management patients are typically those with active medical issues more so than psychosocial needs. Co-management patients are younger than non-co-management patients (72.31 vs. 80.30 years old, P < 0.001), with a higher mean Charlson comorbidity score (3.53 vs. 2.47, P = 0.0001). They have higher baseline annual hospitalization rates (2.27 vs. 0.61, P = 0.0005) and total annual home visit rates (13.1 vs. 6.60, P = 0.0001). NP co-management can be utilized in HBPC to provide intensive medical management to high-risk homebound patients.