Save the Date!
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June 2 - 5, 2010
National Health Care for the Homeless Conference & Policy Symposium
San Francisco Marriott
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| MEDICAL RESPITE PRE-CONFERENCE INSTITUTE HIGHLIGHTS |
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Representative Barney Frank at the 2009 National Health Care for the Homeless Conference & Policy Symposium. Photo by Ansell Horn In June, over 700 people gathered in Washington, D.C., for the 2009 National Health Care for the Homeless Conference & Policy Symposium. The conference included four pre-conference institutes, 70 educational workshops, networking events, site visits, film viewings, and more.
Medical respite care was the focus of a day-long pre-conference institute themed, Respite Care: Yes, We Can! The institute featured powerful personal stories from former medical respite program participants, a discussion of innovative partnerships that medical respite programs have used to support program services, presentations of new research that adds to the growing knowledge base of medical respite care, and a presentation from the Health Resources & Services Administration regarding the use of health center funding to pay for medical respite services.
The conference also included four medical respite workshops. PowerPoint presentations and other materials from these workshops are available on our Respite Training web page.
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| LIVING IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT: FREQUENT USERS, HOMELESSNESS, AND THE ROLE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH COMMUNITY |
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The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the National Health Care for the Homeless Council invite you to participate in a live webcast that explores the impact of homelessness on frequent emergency department (ED) use.
The presentation will describe a Baltimore City ED study, to include clinical case presentations, compare utilization by housing status, and discuss solutions to this complex issue. Solutions to be presented will include permanent supportive housing, intensive case management, and medical respite care as promising approaches to reducing ED use.
There will be a discussion following the presentation where questions will be taken from online submissions as well as from those attending in person.
SPEAKERS:
Stephen Schenkel, MD, MPP | Chief, Emergency Medicine | Mercy Medical Center
Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine | University of Maryland School of Medicine | Baltimore
Barbara DiPietro, PhD | Director of Policy | National Health Care for the Homeless Council | HCH, Inc. | Baltimore
WHEN: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 | 12 Noon - 1:30 P.M. Eastern
LIVE WEBCAST | Download webcast flyer |
| RESEARCH SHOWS MEDICAL RESPITE CARE REDUCES FUTURE HOSPITAL READMISSIONS |
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New research shows that homeless patients who are discharged to medical respite care are less likely to be readmitted for future hospitalizations.
STUDIES:
Citation: Kertesz, SG, Posner, MA, O'Connell, JJ, Swain, S, Mullins, AN, Schwartz, M and Ash, AS. (April 2009). Post-Hospital Medical Respite Care and Hospital Readmission of Homeless Persons. Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community, 37(2), 129-42.
Findings: This study examines whether post-hospital discharge to a homeless medical respite program was associated with a reduced chance of 90-day readmission compared to other disposition options. Adjusting for imbalances in patient characteristics using propensity scores, respite patients were the only group that was significantly less likely to be readmitted within 90 days compared to those released to their own care.
Citation: Sadowski, LS, Kee, RA, Vanderweele, TJ, Buchanan, D. (May 2009). Effect of a Housing and Case Management Program on Emergency Department Visits and Hospitalizations Among Chronically Ill Homeless Adults: A Randomized Trial. JAMA, 301(17), 1771-1778.
Findings: This study uses a randomized controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of a case management and housing program in reducing use of urgent medical services among homeless adults with chronic medical illnesses.
Housing and case management (including case management from Interfaith House, a Chicago-based medical respite program) resulted in 29% fewer hospital days, 29% fewer hospitalizations, and 24% fewer emergency department visits for homeless patients with chronic medical illnesses.
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NEW MEDICAL RESPITE CARE PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA
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Medical Respite Services for Homeless People: Practical Planning
This monograph offers an introduction to medical respite care and is intended to encourage and assist hospital and health center administrators as well as other homeless service providers in developing a medical respite program in their community.
Medical Respite Care Program Directory 2009-2010This directory includes descriptions of all known respite care programs in the U. S. and Canada. The directory includes a listing by state as well as a list of programs according to facility type. Descriptions include clinical and social services offered, funding sources, and more.
Medical Respite VideoFilmed by documentarian, John Baynard of the World Witness Project, this short video describes medical respite care from the perspective of consumers, health care for the homeless clinicians, and a physician from a hospital emergency department. Providers and advocates are encouraged to share the video with potential funders, partners, and policymakers.
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NEW RCPN STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS
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Three RCPN members were elected to the RCPN Steering Committee during the annual RCPN business meeting held on June 24:
Louise Treherne, MSW, LCSW-C | Vice President of Clinical Affairs | Health Care for the Homeless, Inc. | Baltimore
Alice Wong, RN, CNS | Nurse Manager | San Francisco Department of Public Health Medical Respite Program and Sobering Center
Paul Gregerson, MD | Chief Medical Officer | John Wesley Community Health Institute, Inc. | Los Angeles
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| Sabrina Edgington, MSSW | Respite News Editor
Respite Care Providers' Network Coordinator
National Health Care for the Homeless Council, Inc.
sedgington@nhchc.org | 615/226-2292 | www.nhchc.org
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Brenda J. Proffitt, MHA | Membership & Communications Director
National Health Care for the Homeless Council, Inc.
bproffitt@nhchc.org | 505/872-1151 | www.nhchc.org
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Health Care and Housing Are Human Rights |
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