Home care resource consumption and patient outcomes: what are the relationships?

This study examined empirical relationships between measures of home care resource consumption and patient outcome measures in a sample of 201 patients who began new episodes of home care with one of ten Medicare-certified home care agencies in Ohio. We found that, while the total volume of home care resource consumption (i.e., total visits and costs) was similar for patients whose episodes ended with discharge at home vs. hospitalization, patients discharged to hospitals consumed home care resources in a much shorter period of time. We also found that resource consumption patterns were very similar regardless of whether patients improved or declined in clinical and functional health during the episode of home care. Results suggest that home care agencies should carefully project both resource consumption and patient outcome targets when negotiating service contracts with managed care organizations, especially for Medicare patients.