Mt. Sinai's Hospital At Home Demonstration: A Conversation with Dr. Jeffrey Farber (May 7th)

Beyond hospital care's considerable expense and at times questionable quality, it can be often times unnecessary.  We spend over $900 billion, or one-third of all health care spending, on hospital care annually. Despite these costs the quality of hospital care can be poor if not harmful.  A 2013 study published in the Journal of Patient Safety concluded between 210,000 and 440,000 patients hospitalized annually are fatally harmed. Beyond cost and quality, according to federal Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ) approximately ten percent of all hospital admissions for certain chronic and acute conditions are avoidable.

During this 21 minute discussion Dr. Jeffrey Farber explains the impetus for Mt. Sinai's hospital at home or mobile acute care demonstration.  How it's funded, what patients with what diagnoses are eligible, the range of services they receive, the importance of carefully screening these patients before admission and the demonstration's anticipated results.     

Dr, Jeffrey Farber is an Associate Professor in the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, he also serves as the Chief Medical Officer at Mount Sinai Health Partners, as VP of Hospital Services Utilization and as Chief Executive Officer of Mount Sinai Care, Mt. Sinai's Accountable Care Organization.  Dr. Farber completed a residency in Internal Medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia Campus and a fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.  His career interests include research in models of care for older adults, as well as clinical documentation and the medical interface with hospital finance.  He is a recipient of a federal Geriatric Academic Career Award and his research has been published in The Annals of Internal Medicine and The Journal of Hospital Medicine.

CMS's summary of Mt. Sinai's Mobile Acute Care Team (MACT) demonstration is at: http://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/Participant/Health-Care-Innovation-Awards-Round-Two/Icahn-School-Of-Medicine-At-Mount-Sinai.html 

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