Study ties help from community health workers to fewer hospital days

Community health workers help high-risk patients tackle issues from food to housing insecurity — and new research suggests that work might also contribute to fewer days in the hospital among some patients. Researchers ran a randomized trial with nearly 600 patients who lived in high-poverty areas in Philadelphia and had at least two or more chronic diseases, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. All of them received standard primary care, and half also had six months of support from a community health worker. Patients with help from a community health worker were nearly twice as likely to report high-quality primary care and spent fewer total days in the hospital than the primary care-only group.