Health access finding ways into rural areas
CMU health program bringing back house calls ... kind of
A health program through CMU’S College of Medicine has hit upon a novel way of increasing access for rural people to health care.
House calls.
The Rural Older Adult Mobile program is entering its second year of what is anticipated to be a three-year trial. At the end of which, the doctors running it say they think it’ll be a model for other programs throughout Michigan.
The goal of the program is to connect isolated, rural elderly people with primary health care to break the chain of those people relying largely on emergency rooms.
Dr. Sethu Reddy described the problem as living in a land of plenty, where the good stuff is always just on the other side of the fence. When it comes to health care, the United States has great resources, he said. The problem is that people are not always connected to them.
He and Dr. Jyotsna Pandey said that ROAM can change that, but taking health care to where people are.
The program has been slow going in its first year due to the pandemic, and they’ve had to change some of their expectations. For instance, they intend to drive a mobile clinic to where patients live to look at patients, but the pandemic has forced them to take a more controlled approach.
They are bringing their patients to CMU Health and making use of telemedicine, which Reddy said the medical community has embraced due to the pandemic.
The telemedicine starts with a home visit by Myra Vansycle, coordinator for the ROAM program, who conducts a basic assessment before setting the patient up with technology to connect them to a doctor.
Once restrictions are lifted and the doctor can go visit, part of the initial assessment will include an expanded evaluation of things like access to nutrition, social support and assistance identifying risks around the home.
The idea is a more holistic approach to attending to patients, and to keep first that it’s a person receiving health care and not a condition, Reddy said. The goal is to address overall wellness, and not just treatment of disease.
COVID-19 has put some of those plans on hold for the time being, as well as bringing on board students going through CMU’S social work program, which Pandey said would provide them valuable experience in working with other medical professionals.
The pandemic has also created challenges in getting patients signed up. Normally, they’d go to place where seniors get together — community meals, food fairs, Community on Aging nutrition classes — but those have been canceled. In fact, their target community has been warned to stay at home because COVID-19 poses increased dangers to seniors.
They are currently serving 10 patients with capacity for 30, Pandey said.
The program isn’t free, but is billed through someone’s regular health insurance, Reddy said.
ROAM was started with a seed grant of approximately $500,000 from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund that was to last for two years. Pandey said she expects to get a oneyear extension to that.
Once it is up and running, it is expected to be self-sustaining through insurance payments.