Hundreds of homeless patients discharged from Los Angeles area hospitals are annually receiving vital transitional housing and aftercare services through an award-winning recuperative care program spearheaded by National Health Foundation (NHF). Since assuming complete control of the program’s overall management and on-site staffing and operations a year ago on June 1, 2014, the NHF “Pathway Recuperative Care” (PRC) program has served more than 500 patients from 60 participating hospitals, saved the hospitals nearly $5 million collectively, and found temporary or permanent housing for nearly 50 percent of the patients leaving the recuperative care program.

Recuperative care provides hospitals with a discharge option for homeless patients who are no longer sick enough to require continued hospitalization, but who are still too ill to be released onto the streets or placed in a traditional shelter. Participating hospitals can send the homeless patients to a recuperative care center — where they receive basic clothing, meals, and shelter — to recover in a safe and clean setting, receive medical oversight, obtain support in attending follow up appointments, and connect with supportive services and longer term housing.

The NHF PRC program operates at two locations, one in Mid-City LA, the other in the San Gabriel Valley within La Puente. Under the NHF program, patients stay an average of 10 days, and less than 20 percent of the patients are re-admitted to a hospital within 90 days of discharge from the PRC program. The daily fee per patient that hospitals pay is more than 10 times less expensive than the typical $2,000 to $3,000 daily inpatient cost that hospitals incur when homeless patients stay with them.

Dignity Health California Hospital Medical Center in downtown Los Angeles is one of the 60 participating hospitals.  “We are an enthusiastic and active partner in the National Health Foundation program,” said Margaret R. Peterson, PhD, president of California Hospital.  “The PRC program is a unique resource for providing compassionate care to the homeless. The service is high quality, economical, and, most importantly, improves the quality of life for our patients by decreasing the possibility of readmission.”

In Los Angeles County, approximately 6,000 homeless patients are admitted to hospitals each year, and many hospitals have typically kept many patients twice as long as medically necessary (i.e., four extra days) because there was an insufficient availability of appropriate discharge facilities.

In 2008, NHF completed a needs assessment of related services and participated in a two-year demonstration project from 2008 to 2010 that aimed to increase the number of recuperative care beds in the County.

NHF started its own recuperative care program in 2010, in partnership with an on-site operator, and the program received the James Irvine Foundation’s 2014 Leadership Award, which recognizes Californians who are effectively addressing some of the state’s most critical challenges. The partnership ended in May of 2014, and on June 1, 2014, NHF assumed sole control of the program’s on-site staffing and operations and the program’s overall management. The program is financially self-sustaining.

NHF President and CEO Kelly Bruno said, “In response to the lingering issue of homelessness in the County and the ongoing and increased demand from hospitals, we are continuing our efforts to help bridge this gap in health care. For example, we are expanding our outreach to hospitals to make them more aware of the programmatic and cost-effective value of our recuperative care program, now named the Pathway Recuperative Care (PRC) program.” Bruno added that part of this includes the development of enhanced communications materials and resources, including an updated website, which can be accessed via the following link: http://pathwayrecupcare.com/.

Contact: Calvin Naito

323-855-3980, CNaito@nhfca.org