Description and Early Results of the Kaiser Permanente Southern California COVID-19 Home Monitoring Program.

INTRODUCTION: The Southern California region of Kaiser Permanente developed a COVID-19 Home Monitoring program as an alternative to hospital admission to decrease hospital bed days and mitigate the adverse effects of a surge. To date, more than 15,000 patients have been enrolled and approximately 10% of enrolled patients have been escalated to hospital care for timely treatment. Our objective is to describe our COVID-19 Home Monitoring program and present early results. METHODS: We conducted an observational retrospective study of all patients enrolled in the COVID-19 Home Monitoring program between April 13, 2020 through February 12, 2021. Data analysis conducted includes patient demographics, enrollment, entry points, length of stay, mortality, additional treatment, utilization, adherence, satisfaction, and alert triggers. RESULTS: A total of 12,461 of 13,055 patients (95.5%) recovered and completed the program, 1387 patients (10.6%) were admitted to the hospital, and 20 patients (0.2%) died while they were being monitored at home. The mortality rate at 30 days from enrollment was 1.6%. Hospital length of stay for ambulatory patients receiving oxygen only was 5.4 days compared to 3.1 days for those ambulatory patients receiving oxygen, dexamethasone, and remdesivir. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 home monitoring appears to be safe and effective. Initial data suggest it can serve as an alternative to hospitalization, decreasing hospital length of stay when patients receive therapies in the ambulatory setting otherwise reserved for the hospital. Initial results of this Home Monitoring program appear to be promising, and a longer term prospective study is warranted.

The readmission reduction program of Kaiser Permanente Southern California-knowledge transfer and performance improvement.

In 2011, Kaiser Permanente Northwest Region (KPNW) won the Lawrence Patient Safety Award for its innovative work in reducing hospital readmission rates. In 2012, Kaiser Permanente Southern California (KPSC) won the Transfer Projects Lawrence Safety Award for the successful implementation of the KPNW Region's "transitional care" bundle to a Region that was almost 8 times the size of KPNW. The KPSC Transition in Care Program consists of 6 KPNW bundle elements and 2 additional bundle elements added by the KPSC team. The 6 KPNW bundle elements were risk stratification, standardized discharge summary, medication reconciliation, a postdischarge phone call, timely follow-up with a primary care physician, and a special transition phone number on discharge instructions. The 2 additional bundle elements added by KPSC were palliative care consult if indicated and a complex-case conference. KPSC has implemented most of the KPNW and KPSC bundle elements during the first quarter of 2012 for our Medicare risk population at all of our 13 medical centers. Each year, KPSC discharges approximately 40,000 Medicare risk patients. After implementation of bundle elements, KPSC Medicare risk all-cause 30-day Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set readmissions observed-over-expected ratio and readmission rates from December 2010 to November 2012 decreased from approximately 1.0 to 0.80 and 12.8% to 11%, respectively.