Interprofessional Collaborations: Delivering Quality Home Care Services to Patients who are Elderly

Abstract

This article underscores the importance of inter-professional collaborations when providing home care services to patients who are elderly. The extant research literature illuminates the advantages of inter-professional collaborations in healthcare settings. Benefits such as patient satisfaction, seamless care coordination, and improved health outcomes have long been acknowledged. However, when these care collaborations occur within the home milieu, other patient benefits are evident to include: (a) decreased hospital readmissions; (b) improved daily functioning; (c) reductions in health costs; (d) better informed decision making by providers; and (d) more accurate patient assessments. This review article accentuates inter-professionalism and best practices when caring for persons who are elderly in their home environment. Keywords: Inter-professional, Home Care, Home Care for the Elderly Objective: To educate the readership on the benefits of using an inter-professional approach when providing home care to patients who are elderly. Method: A systematic review of the literature is presented which examines inter-professional home care practices with patients who are elderly. The author conducted an electronic literature search for peer-reviewed articles published between 2001and 2021 using the following data bases: EBSCO Host, E-Journal, Academic Search Premier, ERIC, Academic Search Complete, and ScienceDirect. Eighty percent of the articles reviewed were published within the last seven years. The delimitation of extending the review to the past 20 years ensures relevance to the population being studied and health system contexts. The search strategy included select key words (inter-professional approach, home care, home care for the elderly), either separately or in combination. The literature selection process resulted in the inclusion of 49 journal articles in this review. Results: The extant literature provides a clear rationale for using inter-professional collaboration when serving patients who are elderly in the home setting. More inclusive research is needed in order to better delineate the notions and needs of diverse disciplines (e.g., pharmacy, nutrition, speech pathology, physical therapy, occupational therapy, counselors, psychologists, etc.) and to guide more meaningful collaborations. Lastly, a more inclusive theoretical model capturing the key workings of inter-professional collaboration processes is needed. Conclusion: This review article accentuates quality components and best practices for serving elderly persons (inter-professionally) in the home environment. A number of key recommendations are made to more systematically improve team-based care. This article will serve as the foundation for a professional book on inter-professional collaboration. At least 8 disciplines will be invited to contribute a chapter to the book. These contributions will provide a medium for formal inter-professional education.