Management of point-of-care testing in home health care

There have been many strategic changes made in health care to address decreasing revenue. One successful strategy is the reduction of the patient's length of hospital stay. An outcome of early release from a hospital for some patients is that they still require medical assistance. Because of this requirement and the increasing aging population, the home health-care industry has been growing. In the past 20 years, the home health-care market has seen many changes. The latest has been a prospective payment system. This article will describe the past and present home health-care markets and future demands. New technologies in home health care, such as vital sign technology (telemedicine) and increased numbers of waived point-of-care tests, should decrease costs because of fewer visits to the home. A pilot study conducted at a home health-care agency in New York revealed that 7.3% of home visits offered laboratory testing. The study also revealed a 10% return visit to the home to recollect another sample because of specimen problems. Costs associated with these return visits are high for home health-care agencies, but can be altered via telemedicine technology. Telemedicine technology affords the homebound patient to send point-of-care testing results to any laboratory for review and storage, allowing the laboratory to take control of such testing.