Improving the ED-to-Home Transition: The Community Paramedic-Delivered Care Transitions Intervention-Preliminary...

To describe a novel model of care that uses community-based paramedics to deliver a modified version of the evidence-based hospital-to-home Care Transitions Intervention (CTI) to a new context: the emergency department (ED)-to-home transition.

Single-blind randomized controlled trial.

Three EDs in 2 cities.

Through June 2017, 422 individuals discharged home from the EDs who provided consent and were randomized to receive the modified CTI.

We modified the hospital-to-home CTI, applying it to the ED-to-home transition and delivering services through community paramedics, allowing the program to benefit from the unique attributes of paramedics to deliver care.

Through surveys of participants, medical record review, and documentation of activities by CTI coaches, we characterize the participants and program, including feasibility and acceptability.

Median age of participants was 70.7, 241 (57.1%) were female, and 385 (91.2%) were white. Coaches successfully completed 354 (83.9%) home visits and 92.7% of planned telephone follow-up for call 1, 90.9% for call 2, and 85.8% for call 3. We found high levels of acceptability among participants, with most participants (76.2%) and their caregivers (83.1%) reporting themselves likely or extremely likely to choose an ED featuring the CTI program in the future. Coaches reported delivering expected services during contact at least 88% of the time.

Although final conclusions about program effectiveness must await the results of the randomized controlled trial, the findings reported here are promising and provide preliminary support for an ED-to-home CTI Program's ability to improve outcomes. The coaches' identity as community paramedics is particularly noteworthy, because this is a unique role for this provider type. J Am Geriatr Soc 66:2213-2220, 2018.