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Spotlight on Innovations and Achievements: Hospital2Home

We're highlighting the cutting-edge programs and successful strategies used by the 2018 recipients of n4a's Aging Innovations and Achievement Awards in this weekly spotlight feature. This week we're focusing on the Hospital2Home project from Area Agency on Aging District 7 of Southern Ohio, winner in the Health-LTSS Integration category.

The Hospital2Home project provides service vouchers to individuals age 60 and older, not on Medicare, who are transitioning from the hospital back to their homes. The service also provides short-term telephone assistance from options counselors to help guide individuals through affordable care transitions programs. Vouchers can be used to purchase short-term personal care and home-delivered meals.
 
The Hospital2Home project began when AAA7 noticed a lack of resources, fewer social contacts and fewer available family caregivers in the rural areas it serves to care for older adults once they have been discharged from the hospital. When AAA7 saw this, they knew a program must be started to aid the older adults in its region. The program began in February 2017 with the cooperation of seven hospitals.
 
To date, the program has achieved great success. It was reported that 91 percent of participants has not been readmitted within two months of being discharged from the hospital. Additionally, 100 percent of participants believed being part of the program made a positive impact on their lives. Hospital2Home has since developed partnerships with other social service agencies and hospitals that come into contact with older adults who have been discharged from area hospitals. 
 
For more information about this program, please contact Vicky Abdella, Director of Community Services at AAA7, at vabdella@aaa7.org.
 
To learn more about this year's winners, read our press release and check out our book of winners to learn how your agency can implement this or similar programs in your community!
 
Thanks to the generous support of WellCare, the Aging Innovations and Achievement Awards 2019 application process will open soon, so watch your email for updates and consider nominating your agency's programs!
 

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