Impact

Mississippi Health House Network

This study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine during the spring of 2009, looked at Medicare records from late 2003 through 2004. It revealed that about 20 percent of 11.9 million patients were readmitted to the hospital within a month of discharge. The researches suggested many patients do not have enough information to know how to take care of themselves and remain healthy. When they become confused about how to take their medicine or run into other problems, they tend to head back to the hospital because they don't know where to turn, one researcher said.

This alone makes a strong case for the community health house concept which is illustrated below.

The graphic on the left where there is no health house network illustrates the typical patient flow pattern. The constant returns for readmittance places a tremendous unneccessary financial burden on the system. Whereas on the right the health house serves as an intermediate stop where the patient's needs can be appropriately assessed by a specially trained and certified community health worker. In many cases this will be the last stop. In others the assessment may indicate the need for a primary care provider. If the ultimate indication is for a hospital visit/admission the primary care provider makes the decision.