Home Health Care, Telehealth and Phototherapy for Hyperbilirubinemia (Part one of two)
Starting in mid-May 2022, Cincinnati Children’s Home Care Services is planning to offer a telehealth option for phototherapy at home. The telehealth option will be open to patients residing in a 55-mile radius from Cincinnati Children’s Burnet Campus in the states of Ohio and Kentucky. The new telehealth model will include delivery of a phototherapy unit to the patient’s home by the Cincinnati Children’s Home Medical Equipment (HME) team and then a one-time nurse telehealth session with the parent / caregiver.
The goal of the telehealth session is to educate the parent/caregiver on the correct usage of the phototherapy unit at home and review caring for a newborn with hyperbilirubinemia. Home Care nurses will be available 24/7 to assist with equipment troubleshooting and will coordinate the return of the unit back to the HME department. The newborn will need daily labs drawn at their pediatrician’s office or elsewhere within the community.
For now, skilled nurse visits will continue to initiative phototherapy at home for non-English speaking families with the intent to implement telehealth in the future. Skilled nurse home visits may also be conducted for lab draws, during a holiday, when there may be no other opportunities for the patient to receive a lab draw in the community. Please note, skilled nurse visits are not available for patients residing in the state of Kentucky due to Home Care’s Kentucky Mobile License that only permits the nurses to provide home infusion therapy in the state. The tentative plan is for a telehealth soft opening by mid-May 2022 with an objective to ramp up telehealth encounters over time until the team is ready to implement the option full-time. In the transition period, skilled nurse home visits will continue to be offered and provided to begin phototherapy at home (for patients residing in Ohio). We are hopeful the telehealth option will help our team better meet the needs of this patient population.
An EPIC job aide reviewing how to implement Home Care Orders in a CCHMC Ambulatory setting can be found on the Epic Link home page, under the “Quick Links” section.
Check the May issue of Synapse for Part 2 which will include the following:
Management of hyperbilirubinemia
Collaboration w/ NCA
Securing accepting physician at birthing hospital
Ordering a Bili blanket and ideal candidate
Process to re-admit to birth hospital