Pneumonia Management: Field Decision Tree – Home Health

In the past few blogs, I have talked about clinical management of vulnerable high-risk population in home care.  I want to use the algorithm (see below) as an example to demonstrate the standardized approach.  I suggest home care agencies  use the following operational processes for high-risk patients: 

1.  At start of care, obtain patient specific parameters and orders from the physician (NP, PA) managing patient’s home care services
2. Establish baseline vitals, infection status, pain level (comfort function goal,) functional capacity (e.g. use 6 minutes walk test), behavioral status, etc.
3. If/when patient’s condition deviates from baseline for the worse, initiate the protocol and go down the decision tree.  

Algorithm below is an example of pneumonia management in field.  If you are a home care agency looking to develop similar processes, 

1. Work with your referring physicians and hospital systems to establish protocols for the specific patient population
2. Identify community resources that you can partner with to help mitigate transferring patient to higher level of care (e.g. house call, mobile lab and imaging services, home pharmacy etc.)

This standardized approach can be used by Skilled Nursing Facilities, Assisted Living Facilities or any other post-discharge entity providing care for elderly.  

If you are looking for a specific Covid-19 protocol or have any questions or would like to create a customized algorithms, contact me at monika.virk@hopintohc.com or visit www.hqcpro.com