After graduating from medical school over a decade ago, I have been working with home health agencies of all different sizes and needs. I observed that onboarding was extremely challenging, regardless of the size or resources of an agency.

Educators & Clinical Management were “recreating the wheel” every time a clinician was onboarded. There was no standard process or content that was in-place. Content had to be updated every time regulations changed, due to competing priorities, content was always lagging regulations and evidence-based practices.

Gap in communication between different functions meant either the new hire was released too soon, or not soon enough.  Both scenarios created disengaged new hire who is likely to quit within first 90 days! 

I searched for content already available that could help me onboard clinicians and streamline my department's processes.  I reviewed content libraries provided by the biggies (Elsevier, Medbridge, Relias)...

Across the United States, the homebound population is expected to increase by more than 50 percent over the next 20 years (Desai, 2008.)  Lack of home-based palliative care for the homebound population is associated with several adverse outcomes, including increased emergency department visits and hospitalizations as well as decreased caregiver well-being.  As the healthcare market moves towards bundled and shared savings payment models, the incentive will be to keep the patient at a “lower cost setting.”

Innovative care models designed to deliver high quality care while containing cost are vital for sustainability of healthcare delivery at the local and national level.  In 2011, approximately two million people or 5.6 percent of the elderly Medicare population living in the community were completely or mostly homebound. The majority of these patients experience significant symptoms associated with their advanced diseases, in particular, pain and...