RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Home Health Care Workers’ Interactions with Medical Providers, Home Care Agencies, and Family Members for Patients with Heart Failure JF The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine JO J Am Board Fam Med FD American Board of Family Medicine SP 369 OP 375 DO 10.3122/jabfm.2022.220204R2 VO 36 IS 2 A1 Madeline R. Sterling A1 Joanna Bryan Ringel A1 Barbara Riegel A1 Parag Goyal A1 Alicia I. Arbaje A1 Kathryn H. Bowles A1 Margaret V. McDonald A1 Lisa M. Kern YR 2023 UL http://www.jabfm.org/content/36/2/369.abstract AB Background: Despite providing frequent care to heart failure (HF) patients, home health care workers (HHWs) are generally considered neither part of the health care team nor the family, and their clinical observations are often overlooked. To better understand this workforce’s involvement in care, we quantified HHWs’ scope of interactions with clinicians, health systems, and family caregivers.Methods: Community-partnered cross-sectional survey of English- and Spanish-speaking HHWs who cared for a HF patient in the last year. The survey included 6 open-ended questions about aspects of care coordination, alongside demographic and employment characteristics. Descriptive statistics were performed.Results: Three hundred ninety-one HHWs employed by 56 unique home care agencies completed the survey. HHWs took HF patients to a median of 3 doctor appointments in the last year with 21.9% of them taking patients to ≥ 7 doctor appointments. Nearly a quarter of HHWs reported that these appointments were in ≥ 3 different health systems. A third of HHWs organized care for their HF patient with ≥ 2 family caregivers.Conclusions: HHWs’ scope of health-related interactions is large, indicating that there may be novel opportunities to leverage HHWs’ experiences to improve health care delivery and patient care in HF.