In the Fall of 2019, The John A. Hartford Foundation awarded a three-year, $1.6M grant entitled, Moving and Scaling Home-Based Primary Care Phase II: Quality, Training and Advocacy. The project aims to improve care for the more than two million older adults who are the “invisible homebound” with functional impairments and frailty. This phase builds on the success of the initial grant phase, with the same organizations leading three complementary grants.

While each organization has its own unique deliverables, they continue to work in close collaboration to achieve the overall goal ─ increasing access to high quality, home-based primary care that leads to improved outcomes for both patients and caregivers. Following is an overall look at the grant recipients and their respective projects:

• American Academy of Home Care Medicine (AAHCM) is charged with developing a home-based primary care (HBPC) national practice directory. “Our mission in phase two is to create an online Home-Based Primary Care National Practice Directory site to connect patients to practices and refer other providers to home-based primary care providers,” said Brent Feorene, executive director for AAHCM. “The site will also serve as a provider resource for timely information about HBPC, new payment policies and educational content on quality of care. Ultimately, this project will help expand services to populations with serious advanced illness.” The directory is being built using a human-centered design process to ensure it encompasses all the information its various users need and is slated to launch during the fourth quarter of this year.

• National Home-Based Primary Care Learning Network led by Dr. Christine Ritchie at Massachusetts General Hospital and Dr. Bruce Leff at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine will work to expand and enhance a national quality improvement Learning Network among HBPC practices. “The Learning Network will be comprised of practices that identify new and ongoing quality and practice issues in HBPC, develop practice-guided strategies to address these issues, and use real-time, practice-based, data-driven initiatives to evaluate the effectiveness of these efforts,” said Naomi Gallopyn, program manager for Massachusetts General Hospital. The group recently completed a similar project with nine HBPC practices and is now seeking applications to grow their Learning Network with an additional 10 practices (deadline is April 24, 2020).  For more information, please visit improvehousecalls.org.

• The Home Centered Care Institute (HCCI) will build on its strong foundation and leverage the expertise of its staff, faculty and partners to develop and implement an enhanced multi-modal educational strategy. “HCCI is uniquely qualified to meet the current and growing demand for education and training of the home-based primary care workforce,” said Melissa Singleton, Chief Learning Officer for HCCI. “By further enhancing our offerings around clinical and practice management topics, we are equipping providers around the country with the knowledge and skills to be successful. Ultimately, this grant will help achieve HCCI’s goal of expanding the workforce, enhancing patient and caregiver satisfaction, lowering overall costs, and providing higher quality care for home-limited patients.”

“Increasing access to high-quality, home-based primary care is one profoundly important way that we can make health care more age-friendly and focused on what matters to older adults and their families,” said Scott Bane, JD, MPA, Program Officer at The John A. Hartford Foundation.  “The collaborative work of these three organizations will help more providers deliver the right kind of care in the right place for older adults with the most complex needs.”    

About The John A. Hartford Foundation

The John A. Hartford Foundation, based in New York City, is a private, nonpartisan philanthropy dedicated to improving the care of older adults. Established in 1929, the Foundation has three priority areas: creating age-friendly health systems, supporting family caregiving, and improving serious illness and end-of-life care. For more information, visit www.johnahartford.org and follow @johnahartford.