• Scott W Keith, Dexter Waters, Matthew Alcusky, Sarah Hegarty, Niusha Jafari, Marco Lombardi, Monica Pini, and Vittorio Maio.
• Division of Biostatistics, Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA. scott.keith@jefferson.edu.
• J Gen Intern Med. 2022 May 1; 37 (6): 138013871380-1387.

BackgroundSeventeen medical homes (MHs) were established in the Local Health Authority (LHA) of Parma (about 450,000 residents), Emilia Romagna, Italy, between 2011 and 2016.ObjectiveTo estimate the effects of MH implementation on healthcare utilization.DesignWe conducted a longitudinal cohort study (01/2011-12/2017) using the Parma LHA administrative healthcare database.ParticipantsResidents for ≥1 year and older than 14 years of age with a documented primary care physician (PCP) in Parma LHA.InterventionMH exposure status was classified for each resident as either receiving care from a PCP that (1) eventually practices in an MH (pre-MH), (2) is currently in an MH (post-MH), or (3) does not join an MH (non-MH).Main Outcome MeasuresRisks of ordinary inpatient hospital admissions, day hospital admissions, admissions for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs), all-cause emergency department (ED) visits, and deferrable ED visits were compared using Cox proportional hazards regression and risks of all-cause 30- and 90-day readmissions for congestive heart failure (CHF) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were compared using logistic regression.Key ResultsPrior to MH implementation, the risk of all-cause ED visits for pre-MH residents was 0.93 (95% CI: 0.92-0.94) that of non-MH residents. After MH implementation, the relative risk for post-MH versus non-MH was 0.86 (95% CI: 0.85-0.87) and, over time, post-MH versus pre-MH was 0.93 (95% CI: 0.92-0.94). Hospitalization risks were generally lower among the pre-MH and post-MH, compared to non-MH. However, hospitalizations and HF or COPD readmissions were not generally lower post-MH compared to pre-MH.ConclusionsThis MH initiative was associated with a 7% reduction in risk of ED visits. More research is necessary to understand if ED visit risk will continue to improve and how other aspects of healthcare utilization might change as more MHs open and the length of exposure to MHs increases.© 2021. Society of General Internal Medicine.

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