January 2020 | Joel C. Cantor | Opinion: Learning from Disappointing Results of Camden Coalition ‘Hot-Spotting’ Study
It sounds clichéd to say that addressing the needs of the most medically and socially complex patients is challenging. An article published by researchers affiliated with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) based at MIT in last week’s New England Journal of Medicine shows that improving care for such patients is challenging indeed. The new study was a randomized controlled trial, or RCT, of the “hot-spotting” model for care of complex patients developed by the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers. The article reports on one main outcome, hospital readmissions — patients coming back to the hospital after an initial stay.