54 | Specialty Care
Adventist Home Care Services SNAPSHOT OF DIVERSITY Adventist Home Care Services (AHCS), a part of Adventist HealthCare, Inc. (AHC), offers a variety of programs and services to residents in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and suburban Maryland to assist patients while they recuperate from an illness, injury, or surgical procedure. They offer a full range of supportive services to assist with personal care or daily activities. Among the services that they provide are nursing (e.g., cardiac care, wound care, diabetes management, and medication management), rehabilitation (e.g., physical therapy and occupational therapy), and maternal/child services (e.g., lactation support, phototherapy, etc.). The services provided allow patients to receive assistance upon discharge from a hospital or even prevent an initial admission to a hospital. Many avoidable hospital readmissions are related to a lack of support and resources upon discharge from the hospital.53,54 With these and other services, AHCS plays a vital role in filling these gaps and ensuring a continuum of care for patients. With proper discharge planning and access to appropriate medical/clinical support resources, patients are more likely to experience positive outcomes, which may reduce the need for inpatient care. As AHC continues to shift toward a population health approach, home care services will provide critical support to address the health needs of people in the communities we serve. Table 26 below shows the patients who received AHCS services in 2012. More than 5,700 unique patients received services in 2012. These patients accounted for more than 77,035 visits during 2012. Table 25 shows the breakdown of unique AHCS patients, by race/ethnicity. Just more than half of the patients were White (51%) and 35 percent were Black. Hispanic patients and Asian patients accounted for 7 percent and 6 percent of patients, respectively. (Note: See “About the 2013 Health Equity Report” for details on methodology, sources, limitations, inclusions/exclusions, missing data, and other information about the data reported here.) TABLE 26. ALL UNIQUE PATIENTS BY RACE/ETHNICITY, AHCS, 2012 (N=5,736)
Race/Ethnicity
Percent (%)
White
50.8
Black
34.9
Hispanic
7.0
Asian
6.4
Other
0.7
Unknown
0.3
Total
100.1%*
*Due to rounding.
PRIMARY DIAGNOSIS AND HEALTH INSURANCE More than half of AHCS patients were diagnosed as being “not currently sick” or having a “problem that influenced their health status,” which includes being in a post-procedural state, having problems with limbs, having motor or sensory problems, and receiving dialysis (ICD 9 codes V40-V82). Other prevalent diagnoses included diseases of the circulatory system, skin and subcutaneous tissue, and musculoskeletal system.