Ambulatory ICU Study for Medically and Socially Complex Patients

Overview

This is a prospective randomized wait-list control study to determine whether a stand-alone, co-located team of physician, mental health behaviorist, and care coordinators with decreased panel size (aka "intensive primary care") will reduce inpatient and emergency care utilization, inpatient costs of care, and improve patient activation and experience for medically and socially complex patients, compared to enhanced usual care at 6 and 12 months. Participants with multiple co-morbidities, and meet utilization criteria will have the opportunity to enroll; half the participants will start the intervention immediately, while half will continue enhanced usual care for 6 months before beginning the intervention.

The goal of this study is to conduct an evaluation of an "Ambulatory-ICU" model of primary care for "high utilizer" patients with medical, behavioral, and social complexity. A small proportion of patients use \> 50 % of healthcare resources. It is currently unknown what interventions can help reduce inappropriate utilization due to lack of studies with rigorous study design, particularly in patients with high rates of homelessness, mental illness and substance use. The use of high-risk teams for select patients is a promising model of primary care that removes barriers to accessing usual care services by centralizing medical and behavioral clinical services, promotes ability to outreach beyond the clinic, and promote continuity of care and trust-building between patient and provider teams. This study will test the hypothesis that a stand-alone clinic based intervention of a multidisciplinary, co-located physician, mental health behaviorist, nursing, pharmacist, and care coordinators with reduced panel size, and focus on patient capacity building and decreasing treatment burden will improve health outcomes at 6 and 12 months in a low-income high utilizer population with history of homelessness. Enhanced usual care comprises of care delivered at Old Town Clinic (OTC) a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that is modeled on the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model. Patients have a designated primary care physician and care team with access to chronic disease education, mental health, social work, and substance abuse programs through referral system. In addition, participants thought to have difficulty engaging in primary care have access to a Health Resilience Specialist, a community health worker intervention who conducts outreach and assists the patient in care navigation.