Transition care centres The need of the hour to ease pressure on hospital infrastructure

:Patients who have recovered from a serious illness but are not well enough to go back home need a special kind of care and care environment. This special care is known as Transition Care and the setting is known as Transition Care Centre. Thus, transition care bridges the healthcare continuum gap between tertiary care hospitals and homes. These transition care centres provide more cost-effective clinical care for long-term patients to recover in an infection-free, expert rehab and skilled nursing environment under 24/7 medical supervision.

This concept is quite prevalent in advanced economies like the US. However, in India it is still catching on. The transition care market in the US is estimated at $40-60 bn. India an elderly population of 104 million, 74 million diabetics, 1.8 million stroke patients, and 300,000 cardiac / road accident surgery instances. The country has only 2.3 ICU beds per 100,000 patients. Clearly, the market for transition care in India is huge.

HCAH SuVitas, a Bengaluru-based transition care company, is a big player in this area. Recently, it was acquired by Noida-based home health-tech company HealthCare atHome (HCAH).HCAH, started in 2012 by Vivek Srivastava, and supported by the Burmans of Dabur Group delivers healthcare services, including ICU, step-down beds, post-operative care, nursing, physiotherapy, attendant services, and elderly care.

In this background, Heal Health, in association with HCAH SuVitas, conducted a webinar on ‘Covid 3.0: How much is India ready? Home healthcare and transition care emerging as panacea.’Speaking at the media workshop, Mr. Vivek Srivastava, Co-Founder & CEO, HCAH, said, “We have treated over 10 lakh Covic-19 patients. Imagine if all of them had gone to hospitals? The hospital infrastructure would have collapsed. It is here that home healthcare and transition care comes into play. It is a matter of great satisfaction that at the height of Covid-19, we saved many lives in Delhi.”

“There are some fundamental challenges. We have a significantly low doctor to patient ratio. 25% of the population has some ailment. If they all land up in hospitals, the hospital infrastructure would collapse. So we need out-of-hospital care centre.”  

Explaining the setup, Antra Bhargava, CEO, HCAH SuVitas, said, “During the second wave of the pandemic, HCAH SuVitas came to the rescue of non-COVID-19 patients who needed a safe clinical facility to recover post-surgery or trauma as well as for geriatric patients who could not sustain themselves at home with family members stuck elsewhere. All immune-compromised patients were monitored and our team ensured that they were able to return home at the right time.”

Antra Bhargavaalso noted that each tertiary care bed should be supplemented with a transition care bed to ensure full recovery of patients, and to avoid:

• Readmission to the hospital due to disease recurrence, infection, etc
• Preventable long-term disability by having dedicated and early-stage recovery experts working with them.

“The second wave has created a new demand of Transition Care, especially during Covid-19 times. We have 3,000 recoveries during the second wave. More than 80% recovered through rehabilitation. The tertiary and quaternary care in India were unable to cater to the Covid-19 patients,”Antra Bharvava added.

“More than any other time, Transition Care has recognised maximum across during second spell of COVID 2.0. Many patients who did not need to be in ICUs but were not good enough to go home, were referred to transition care centres. So, the transition care services were recognised as very important in the recovery process,”says Mr. Raymond L Thivierg, Chief Strategy Officer at SavaSeniorCare Administrative Services LLC. Fort Lauderdale, Florida United States.

HCAH SuVitas has led 3,000+ recoveries in its 2 centres thus far. This covers complex neuro rehabilitation to lifestyle interventions for cardiac care, from infection protection and nutritional support to cancer survivors to seniors that require memory care.

In a post-COVID-19 world with an increased focus on the need to accelerate healthcare infra expansion in the country, Transition Care Centres on the HCAH SuVitas model is the need of the hour. It is an easier, less expensive, and faster way to add to the hospital bed count in the country and to free up tertiary care for those who really need life-saving interventions.

“We were part of the Karnataka government task force. We realised that home healthcare and transition care were important for issues like Covid-19. 25-30% of these patients are left with various health issues. Even non-Covid-19 patients need transition care for getting back to complete health,”says Dr Rangappa, DNB (Internal Medicine), FJFICM. EDIC PG Dip., ECHO, MBA, (HCS), National Vice-President, ISCCM (Indian Society for Critical Care Medicine).

“The recovery rate of the patients who took Home and Transition during COVID 2.0 was 97%. And the second spell of COVID has also taught us a lesson that the transition care hospital out of the hospital is the need of the hour. We provide service outside of the hospitals and the facilities. To fill the gap of the fundamental challenges that India’s healthcare delivery system has, the combination of Home Care and Transition care is the answer,” says Dr Gaurav Thukral, COO, HCAH.