Residents of rural counties experience significant disparities in health care access and outcomes when compared to their urban counterparts. These disparities are structural; based in our market-based medical care delivery system. For rural residents with multiple chronic conditions, transitioning along the continuum of care, between systems of treatment and support, and between dispersed locations both expose and produce disparities. The transition home from hospitalization for treatment exposes the current urban bias. Indeed, discharge planning is fragmented and uncoordinated, and contributes to poor the disparities. The specific aims of this research is to ascertain rural patients' actual experience of discharge; then to involve patients and rural providers in using those data to design a contextually appropriate rural options at discharge model of active planning (ROADMAP) that improves patient outcomes and reduces disparities. Objectives include:
1. Ascertain actual patient experience in the rural discharge process.
2. Design the ROADMAP model to fit the emerging health services context.
3. Test the ROADMAP's efficacy in enhancing patient defined outcomes.
4. Design the components for rapid diffusion.
Researchers will work in four counties of the Missoula Hospital Referral Region with a total population of 53,116 living on 12,342 square miles (4.3 persons per square mile). Researchers will recruit patients seeking treatment from St. Patrick Hospital. Patients and patient advocates will serve on an Innovations Design Team (IDT) to create the ROADMAP. Researchers will first interview patients (n = 40) who have been discharged to one of the rural counties. Researchers will compare their experiences to guidelines. Next, they will conduct a Design Survey (n=600) to verify goals important to patients. The IDT will use these findings to develop design requirements for ROADMAP. Finally, we will use a quasi-experimental research design to compare the patient designed rural ROADMAP to standard practice. The primary outcome measures are measures that reflect the patient's values for health-related quality of life and functional status, as well as hospital re-admissions. An independent statistician will use Hierarchical Linear Modeling to examine the complex relationships. This approach accounts for patients nested in four counties and the correlated errors inherent in within subject analysis. Health care reform sets the occasion for rapid diffusion of ROADMAP. This can provide an incremental reduction in rural disparities. Incorporating patient and provider input increases the likelihood it will fit within the emerging reimbursement model. Researchers expect that ROADMAP will reduce re-hospitalizations by as much as 30%, and improve patient recovery and return to participation in daily life.
