Flexible Adaptable Home Support Team: fewer missed visits
Home Support clients with the highest needs sometimes cancel and miss important visits because of unique challenges. This can put them at risk and often disrupts consistent quality care.
A new team called the Flexible Adaptable Home Support Team has introduced a care model focusing on low-barrier access.
The new program adapts to the needs and schedules of complex clients for whom traditional home support may not be the right fit, focusing on the Downtown Eastside. The team's approach addresses the need for flexible scheduling, rather than offering fixed times for appointments. The program recognizes that several factors, including mental health and substance use challenges, may lead to clients not being ready for scheduled appointments or needing to cancel in advance.
Reducing barriers to care for complex clients has proven beneficial. Between February 2023 and February 2024, the client-initiated cancellation rate stayed below one per cent.
“The way the program is set up allows us to re-visit a client sometimes multiple times if needed. If we arrive for a visit and they're not ready for us or not there, we come back,” said Gabrielle Fajardo, Community Liaison Worker, VCH.
The Flexible Adaptable Home Support Team at VCH has maintained a less-than-one per cent rate of client-initiated cancellations in its first year.
New program helps people receive safe and individualized care at home
Patients are benefiting from convenient, safe and timely care from the comfort of home as the Hospital at Home program launches in several hospitals.
In 2024 Hospital at Home enrolled more than 200 patients, expanded to include intake from UBC Hospital and was recognized provincially with a Premier’s Award nomination.
Hospital at Home is an internationally recognized model that is both safe and effective, and is designed to improve patient comfort, privacy and independence. The teams include doctors, registered nurses, pharmacists, occupational and physiotherapists, and speech-language pathologists, among others. Other specialists may be provided as needed so care is tailored to a patient’s individual needs.
Eligible patients at Vancouver General Hospital, UBC Hospital, St. Paul’s Hospital and Mount Saint Joseph Hospital can choose to receive care in their own home rather than the hospital, if deemed safe and appropriate. The program is open to qualifying patients who have a diagnosis, such as sepsis, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or dehydration.
“The biggest benefit of Hospital at Home we hear from our patients is that they get to recover in their own home,” said Dr. Iain McCormick, Hospital at Home Medical Lead, Vancouver General Hospital. “Patients have a lot of support, including daily in-person visits and a mix of virtual and monitoring technologies.”
Hospital at Home
Hospital at Home is an innovative program that is an alternative to being in the hospital. Hospital at Home gives eligible patients the choice to receive hospital-level services in their home.
