OAHHS Hospital Voice Fall/Winter 2020

33 Fall/Winter 2020 HOSPITAL SPOTLIGHTS, CONT. KAISER PERMANENTE  MEDICALLY TAILORED MEALS ON WHEELS Proper nutrition has always been a staple of good health—but what happens when isolated patients are struggling to recover from a disease like COVID-19, and lack access to healthy food? Enter Kaiser Permanente’s new Medically Tailored Meals program. As part of a new partnership with Meals On Wheels People, patients will get meals delivered to their homes, each one nutritionally tailored by a dietitian to fit their recovery needs. The regional study, led by the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, is part of a program supported by the healthcare organi- zation’s Community Health program, which aims to underscore how proper nutrition can improve recovery time, reduce the number of re-hospitaliza- tions, decrease the number of co- morbid complications, and eliminate food insecurity. “The benefit of a program like this is to standardize the nutrition of somebody with medical complica- tions or recent hospitalization,” says Emily Doss, MD, a primary care physician at Kaiser Permanente’s Mt. Scott Medical Office in Clackamas. “The hope would be to nourish these patients as they’re recovering so they can heal faster and decrease their potential need for re-hospitalization.” The program was designed for mem- bers with chronic conditions like congestive heart failure, diabetes, renal disease, and cirrhosis. Since conditions like these make people particularly susceptible to secondary infections or re-hospitalization, accessible nutrition is even more critical to their health and healing. After being discharged from the hospital, Meals On Wheels People delivers two medically tailored meals a day for four weeks directly to the member’s home. “Our team works closely with Kaiser Permanente dieticians to create recipes that have the proper nutri- ents and standards for each meal— depending on the patient’s condition,” says Suzanne Washington, CEO of Meals on Wheels People. “We’re not making our menus up from scratch … it’s a real consultative, team-based approach to help patients get what they really need to thrive and live healthier.” With the emergence of the current health pandemic, it became clear that COVID-19 patients had an immedi- ate and pressing need for support because of the unique challenges they face. Many of them remain contagious after discharge and are asked to self-isolate once they’re home. For the first several weeks the program was open to COVID-19 patients aged 18 and older who had been hospitalized at Kaiser Perman- ente’s Sunnyside or Westside medical centers. Now, the program has shifted toward serving its original target group of patients with chronic conditions. Previous studies on the subject show that people who receive medically tailored meals are 23 percent more likely to be dis- charged to their homes rather than to another facility and are 50 percent less likely to be readmitted to the hospital for recurrence or additional complications.