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. 2022 Mar 21;22(1):234.
doi: 10.1186/s12877-022-02907-w.

Barriers and facilitators to providing home-based care in a pandemic: policy and practice implications

Sue Anne Bell  1 , Lydia Krienke  2 , Allyson Brown  3 , Jen Inloes  4 , Zoe Rettell  4 , Tamar Wyte-Lake  5
Affiliations

Barriers and facilitators to providing home-based care in a pandemic: policy and practice implications

Sue Anne Bell et al. BMC Geriatr. .

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study is to describe the experiences of home-based care providers (HBCP) in providing care to older adults during the pandemic in order to inform future disaster planning, including during pandemics.

Design: Qualitative inquiry using an abductive analytic approach.

Setting and participants: Home-based care providers in COVID-19 hotspots.

Methods: Telephone interviews were conducted with 27 participants (administrators, registered nurses and other members of the allied healthcare team), who provided in-home care during the pandemic in Medicare-certified home health agencies. Interviews focused on eliciting experiences from HBCP on challenges and successes in providing home-based care to older adults, including barriers to care and strategies employed to keep patients, and providers, safe in their homes during the pandemic.

Results: Data was distilled into four major themes that have potential policy and practice impact. These included disrupted aging-in-place resources, preparedness actions contributing to readiness for the pandemic, limited adaptability in administrative needs during the pandemic and challenges with unclear messaging from public health officials.

Conclusions: Home-based care plays an essential role in maintaining the health of older adults in disaster contexts, including pandemics. Innovative solutions, informed by policy that generate evidence-based best practices to support HBCP are needed to reduce barriers and increase protective factors, in order to maintain continuity of care for this vulnerable population during disruptive events.

Keywords: COVID-19; Disaster; Home-based care; Policy; Practice.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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