From H&HN:
Meeting in Chicago under the aegis of the American College of Emergency Physicians a little over four years ago, a consortium of 10 EMS-affiliated physicians and health care strategists from around the country, including Beck, proposed a new model for delivery of appropriate, around-the-clock, comprehensive, planned or unplanned care outside the hospital, using interprofessional medical teams.
They called it mobile integrated health care practice, or MIHP. The P has since been dropped as confusing. But as MIH, it’s an idea that is already recording encouraging results.
“It makes a big difference for the patients to have an advanced practice provider go to their home after they’ve been discharged and look around,” he says. “In almost all cases, something’s not right. Patients are given a number to call if they have problems, and we have a multi-triage system to decide whether they can wait or need an ambulance immediately. Their discharge summary lists the physician who’s responsible and, if appropriate, that’s where we take them.”
Says Beck: “Some hospitals are trying to manage the present. They’re caught up in working their way through the challenges of the near term. Others have a strategy that’s more outward looking. They’re pursuing value-focused care. For them, mobile integrated health is coming into focus pretty quickly. It’s a new iteration of a familiar set of players … and a pretty exciting new set of menu choices for hospitals and health systems that are thinking holistically.”
