Three years ago, Senior Helpers rolled out its Life, Independence, Function, Evaluation (LIFE) Profile assessment tool. The hope was to break the unfortunate – but typical – cycle of injury, hospitalization and rehospitalization.
Since its implementation, Senior Helpers has seen success utilizing its LIFE Profile tool to stop what the company refers to as the “revolving door of hospitalizations.” In fact, the tool has helped lower seniors’ risk of an “unsafe occurrence” or hospitalization by over 70%, according to the company.
Essentially, LIFE Profile is a data-driven assessment tool that examines daily living activities, home safety, medical condition management, caregiver stress, quality of life, environment and socialization. Each of these factors contribute to a total score and this information enables Senior Helpers to form a more customized care plan.
LIFE Profile also has an accompanying app.
“We go through this complete assessment and it’s amazing what we get out of it for the care plan, and more importantly, what we can communicate with the family,” Senior Helpers CEO Peter Ross told Home Health Care News. “That score can determine the likelihood of someone entering the hospital.”
For example, a source of 27 would indicate that a potential rehospitalization may be in a senior’s near future, Ross said. The score scale ranges from zero to 50.
“That means there’s an 80% chance they’re gonna go back into the hospital, but with this knowledge, there might be things we can do to prevent this, whether that’s installing a grab bar in the bathroom, putting non stick mats in the bathroom to avoid slips, whether it’s moving things around in the home to prevent falls,” Ross said. “We do all of those types of things as part of this survey and this assessment tool.”
Recently, LIFE Profile received a peer review from the Aging Life Care Association, a Tucson, Arizona-based non-profit organization comprised of more than 2,000 professionals in the elder care sector.
The review pointed out that 20% of “high-need, high-cost” older adults discharged from the hospital will be readmitted within 30 days of discharge. Additionally, more than 50% will be readmitted within the scope of a year.
On the flip side, identifying and addressing risk factors makes 76% of readmissions preventable, Aging Life Care Association wrote in the review.
This where Senior Helpers has been able to move the needle forward with LIFE Profile.
“LIFE Profile scoring has shown efficacy in predicting the risk of future hospitalization,” Aging Life Care Association wrote. “When examined within a cohort of 196 Medicare patients in Houston, Texas, a 2018 observational study of this method showed correlation between autonomy scores and the likelihood of a hospital admission within six months of the assessment.”
In Ross’ view, the Aging Life Care Association’s peer review provides LIFE Profile credibility.
“I think it solidified that we’re actually doing something that’s making a difference,” he said. “We always believe we’re making a difference in everything we do at Senior Helpers, but it’s nice to get clinicians to tell you, ‘Hey, this assessment tool is going above and beyond what’s ever been out there before.’”
Aside from the attention LIFE Profile has received for Aging Life Care Association, the tool has also helped Senior Helpers catch the eye of Advocate Aurora Enterprises, which purchased the company last year.
“One of the reasons they liked us so much was because of LIFE Profile,” Ross said. “[Advocate Aurora] is all about evidence-based care. We were already tracking those things, so they were very excited about this.”
Ross shared that Advocate Aurora and Senior Helpers are currently working on various projects and pilots centered around data tracking.
Ultimately, Ross considers keeping seniors out of the hospital “a huge win” for the seniors, their loved ones and the health care system. But there’s still room to improve, he said.
“We don’t sit still,” Ross said. “We’re constantly trying to modify and improve the app to make sure that we’re doing everything possible with the assessment. We’re also looking at integrating it with our software, including our current home care software, as well as health care systems like Epic, so that we can be more communicative to the providers.”
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