PCOM Partners with Residentialist Group to help treat high-risk elderly in Philadelphia

July 7, 2015

Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) is embarking on an enterprise partnership with The Residentialist Group (TRG), a California-based management group specializing in the development and operation of house call programs. The new partnership will specialize in the delivery of Residentialist care—which focuses on the care of homebound or access-challenged patients—and will offer complex case management and in-home clinical services to Philadelphia’s high risk, frail elderly population.

At the heart of the new partnership is the launch of the Residentialist Housecall Medical Group (RHMG). The Greater Philadelphia-based network will develop interdisciplinary teams to address the physical and psychological needs of its patients. Specially trained RHMG physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants will deliver a range of services, including post-hospitalization care transition services to reduce readmission rates; ongoing chronic care for patients too frail or disabled to leave their homes; palliative care services, and annual Medicare wellness visits.

According to a recent study in JAMA Internal Medicine, nearly 6 percent of those aged 65 and older are entirely homebound. Further, those individuals tend to have more chronic conditions and are more likely to have been hospitalized within the last 12 months. Only about 12 percent of the patients reported receiving primary care services at home, indicating a clear need for more home-based health services for this population.

PCOM’s tradition of clinical excellence in both Geriatrics and palliative care in Philadelphia spans more than two decades. In support of the new network, PCOM faculty and staff in the Department of Geriatric Medicine will utilize their expertise to advise RHMG staff on issues such as clinical policy, evidence-based clinical protocols, and contract development with regional Accountable Care organizations and managed care networks.

"For more than 20 years, the PCOM Department of Geriatric Medicine has provided multidimensional services for Philadelphia’s elderly population through a continuum of care, including office and consultative care, inpatient, hospice, long term care and home care services,” said Jay S. Feldstein, DO, president and CEO of PCOM. “This partnership will allow us to expand our clinical footprint even further into the marketplace of residential care, and expand our services to some of Philadelphia’s most vulnerable populations.”

The Residentialist Group has a long history of success delivering patient-centered, outcome-based, in-home care. For the past 13 years, TRG has operated a similar network, Housecall Doctors Medical Group, which provides on-site clinical services to more than 1,500 homebound elderly patients in Southern California.

“Since our founding in 2002, our mission has always been to provide access and continuity, as well as  coordinated, compassionate, high-quality care within the home environment. We are patient advocates. We seek to enhance the quality of life for our patients, and help them to remain safely in their own homes,” said Norman Vinn, DO '77, president of the Residentialist Group and former president of the American Osteopathic Association. “PCOM has demonstrated a strong commitment to those we consider our core patient base: the hidden underserved population of high-risk, frail, elderly patients. PCOM’s faculty are experts in the areas of palliative care, geriatric medicine and end-of-life care. To that end, this partnership is a natural fit.”