A Clinical Microsystem Model to Evaluate the Quality of Primary Care for Homebound Older Adults

The declining use of nursing homes and a growing aging population is increasing the demand for home-based primary care (HBPC) among chronically ill disabled homebound older adults and their informal caregivers. The problem this poses is that access to HBPC is limited. Typically, HBPC programs are small and available in only a few communities. Expansion of HBPC nationally has been hampered by limited awareness of this mode of care and by a dearth of research examining the quality and effectiveness of primary care delivered in the home. In this article, we address the need for stronger evidence demonstrating how well HBPC programs deliver and improve care by laying the foundation for more rigorous evaluation of HBPC services. First, an HBPC clinical microsystem model for evaluating program quality and effectiveness is described to clarify relationships among 5 elements essential for delivering high-quality primary care to homebound elders: purpose, patients, people (staff), processes, and patterns. Data for the model were identified through MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PubMed searches that produced 540 potentially relevant studies, from which 21 studies of HBPC programs and services were selected to construct the clinical microsystem. Second, in order to inform health policymaking about the design and financing of HBPC, findings from program evaluations reported in the selected studies are summarized. Finally, recommendations for future research are outlined, including epidemiological studies to estimate the proportion and characteristics of the homebound population for planning appropriate services and creating large databases for evaluating HBPC quality, costs, and outcomes. Ultimately, the scalability of HBPC to meet the demand of current and future older adults depends on incentives that value the home as a bona fide setting for delivering primary care.