Health Care Hotspotting: A Randomized Controlled Trial

The Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers’ Care Management Program, Link2Care, targets “super-utilizers” of the health care system – specifically adults with two or more hospitalizations in the prior six months and multiple chronic conditions – with intensive care-management services in the months following hospital discharge. A team of nurses, social workers, community health workers, and health coaches, supported by real-time data of health care use, perform home visits, accompany patients to doctor visits, and help patients enroll in social-service programs. This approach aims to improve the self-sufficiency of patients in navigating the health care and social-service systems and has the potential to reduce hospital re-admissions and improve patient well-being. This project will rigorously investigate the impacts of the program on subsequent health care utilization and the use of social services through a randomized controlled trial.

Learn more:

• Evaluation Summary: Healthcare Hotspotting in the United States
• Publication: Health Care Hotspotting — A Randomized, Controlled Trial, The New England Journal of Medicine

Media coverage:

• These Patients are Hard to Treat, New York Times
• Reduce Health Care Costs by Nurturing the Sickest? A Much Touted Idea Disappoints, NPR
• 'Hotspotting Patients with Extensive Needs Fails to Reduce Hospital Readmissions, Reuters
• 'Hot spotting' doesn't work. So What Does?, Politico
• Evaluating the Camden Core Model: How a Research Partnership between the Camden Coalition and J-PAL North America Was Built, J-PAL Blog