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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Jeremy Boal, MD and Katherine Ornstein, MPH. Visiting Doctors Program, Mount Sinai Hospital, Box 1216, New York, NY 10029, 212-241-4141, jeremy.boal@mssm.edu
Men and women who are homebound due to functional and psychological impairment are frequently unable to access traditional health care services. This growing population can suffer from isolation, depression, high degrees of symptom burden, and caregiver burnout. The Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors program has delivered primary medical care to homebound persons in Manhattan for five years through the use of physician and nurse practitioner home visits. The program serves 600 patients annually and aims to provide a full spectrum of medical and psychosocial support to homebound persons in the community. We recently identified three unmet needs in our program: caregiver support, consistent access to community resources, and translation services for Spanish-speaking patients and caregivers. In response to this assessment we have expanded our medical care program to include full-time social work and Spanish translation services. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the frequency and character of social work and translation services requested and rendered as well as patient, caregiver and Visiting Doctors staff satisfaction with new services have been conducted. Our findings indicate that translation and social work services are beneficial components of our programs for patients, their caregivers and program staff. Social work services have enabled patients and caregivers to obtain appropriate services including entitlements, home care, meal delivery, and referral to community resources. The availability of translation services has helped to empower patients as their own health care advocates. Our expanded program serves as a model for providing more comprehensive care to homebound persons and their caregivers.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Access to Health Care, Home Visiting
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: I am the director of the Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors Program.