Comprehensive health care organizations change programs in response to pandemic

Comprehensive care organizations are changing programs in response to
Annual report describes how the Camden Coalition worked with partners to meet the needs of vulnerable populations affected by the pandemic

Organizations that help meet patients’ needs for integrated care rely on strong community health care ecosystems and their ability to innovate during a pandemic. For example, the Camden, New Jersey-based provider coalition’s annual report details how COVID-19 tested the partnership and determined its future direction.

The organization’s basic model involves using health information exchange to identify patients with complex medical and social needs, meeting them in the hospital or community, and then ensuring that home and community care is managed and coordinated to help them meet their needs. own goals for health and well-being. The report says that almost every one of its programs has been modified in some way in response to the pandemic.

In her foreword to the 2020 annual report, Camden Coalition CEO Kathleen Noonan noted that in January 2020, the organization had just released the results of a randomized controlled trial examining the impact of its baseline model on re-hospitalizations. The main conclusion from that study was that no single program or organization can solve its patients’ complex care needs alone, she noted. Success in integrated care depends on a community coming together to bring systems together and form coordinated ecosystems of services.

“When we shared our analysis of the study results or when we released the 2019 annual report,” Building Strong Ecosystems,” we had no idea how critical strong ecosystems of care would be in 2020,” Noonan wrote. “The COVID-19 pandemic put all of our systems and partnerships to the test. Our failure as a country to invest in strong health care ecosystems means that people with complex health and social needs have been disproportionately affected not only by the virus itself, but also by the destruction it has caused to the systems they rely on to access health care. , food, transportation and housing.”

The report highlights the many ways the Camden Coalition worked with partners to address the needs of vulnerable populations affected by the pandemic:

• It worked with Camden County to provide medical supervision for people in quarantine at a designated hotel managed and operated locally by Volunteers of America-Delaware Valley (VOA-DV). The quarantine hotel in Camden County, like other hotels across the country, was designed to provide shelter and care for COVID-infected people who are homeless or otherwise unable to self-isolate. In addition to a COVID-19 diagnosis and lack of housing, most quarantined hotel residents had complex needs, including multiple chronic illnesses, substance use disorders, and mental health conditions. In many cases, their quarantined stay gave the Camden Coalition an opportunity to support VOA-DV supervisors in connecting hotel residents to services and supports that could improve their health and well-being after discharge.
• The Camden Coalition joined a number of local health care organizations to support the Camden County Health Department in opening COVID-19 testing centers in Camden. This ensured that anyone who tested positive for COVID-19 was screened for any social supports they might need, especially if they were required to self-segregate. He found widespread food insecurity among those tested and helped people get food assistance and other resources. In late 2020, he teamed up again with Camden County and Cooper University Healthcare to roll out a mobile testing plan. It provided a data infrastructure to locate sites, prioritizing local hot spots with high COVID-19 cases. The new mobile sites are located in public schools and immediately expanded access to testing for residents.
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