For many years, home health care providers in Indiana and nationwide have operated under this mantra: Home is where patients want to remain as they age.

In fact, research has continually shown Americans widely prefer receiving skilled nursing care and rehabilitative therapies in the comfort and safety of their own homes – rather than in hospitals or nursing facilities.

Now more than ever, as COVID-19 rages through institutional settings, home is where patients appear to be safest. This is evidenced by the devastating toll COVID-19 has exacted on long-term care facilities such as nursing homes, which account for a staggering percentage of coronavirus deaths nationwide.

Amid the chaos of the pandemic, home health care providers have pressed forward on the front lines of care to reduce the burden on hospitals, keep patients out of nursing home hot spots and continue to serve as a resource for medically fragile children and older adults, who are at the greatest risk if exposed to the novel coronavirus.

Ensuring that those we care for are comfortable and safe has always been central to our commitment to the communities we serve. But this mission has never been as important as it is now. Nor has it ever been as challenging.

Since March, Indiana’s home health care agencies have been working to care for our typical patient population, which averages approximately 60,000 Medicare beneficiaries annually, in addition to meeting the even greater care needs presented by the coronavirus.

Because our skilled clinicians are trained in managing a wide range of conditions — including severe pulmonary illness — we have become trusted partners with hospitals by allowing less critical COVID-19 patients to be discharged and treated at home.

Doing so has allowed hospitals the capacity to care for the sickest patients while our caregivers provide ongoing monitoring for those with milder forms of illness.

Our home health agencies also serve as a safe alternative care setting for patients requiring skilled care – but who are fearful or unwilling to receive institutional care for fear of contracting the virus.

Certainly, many patients have been reluctant to let anyone into their homes, which at first made home health visits by clinicians and caregivers difficult. But working together, we’ve been able to educate clients and their families about infection control procedures, as well as how to stay safe from the virus.

We have worked through the significant obstacles for obtaining personal protective equipment (PPE) and, remarkably, transformed much of the way that care is delivered.

For example, the COVID-19 emergency has shown how critically important it is to embrace innovative avenues for care delivery – something that our providers are increasingly doing in the current environment.

For health care and general business alike, virtual services – once a mere afterthought –  are now a vital piece of the puzzle. Even though home health care is traditionally known as an in-person service, with its roots dating to the era of doctors’ house calls, we are now successfully using telehealth for safe, socially distanced visits – and for patients whom we never thought would utilize that type of care. 

Unfortunately, given COVID-19’s merciless resurgence across dozens of states – it’s clear this pandemic is far, far from over. But even so, we continue to learn important lessons about how best to protect ourselves, our patients and our communities.

Among the key takeaways of this pandemic is the need for safe and quality health care in the home – a reality that is more apparent now than ever before. As both federal and state lawmakers work to protect greater numbers of our sick and vulnerable citizens from contracting COVID-19, home health agencies, the skilled health care professional teams they employ, and the older Americans they serve should remain top of mind. We are one of their most important resources for protecting seniors and controlling unnecessary spread of this deadly virus.

Evan Reinhardt is executive director of the Indiana Association for Home and Hospice Care.

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