Business Briefs: Meals on Wheels Acquires Home Health Provider

Nonprofit In-Home Health Provider Acquired by Meals on Wheels 

Distributor of over 3,000 meals to homebound seniors and people with disabilities, Meals on Wheels Central Texas, has acquired Austin, Texas-based, Helping the Aging, Needy and Disabled (HAND), a nonprofit in-home health care services provider.

HAND provides personal care to nearly 400 low-income older adults and people with disabilities to help them continue to live independently in their homes. Meals on Wheels also focuses on helping low-income clients, and views HAND as a complimentary acquisition to support that cause.

As part of the acquisition, Meals on Wheels maintained HAND’s staff, but appointed a new executive director from within the Meals on Wheels’ rank. A new board of directors was also appointed to oversee HAND’s operations. Meals on Wheels acquired HAND and merged with operations in June. However, HAND remains as its own independent entity.

Meals on Wheels provides a variety of services to approximately 5,000 clients annually. Roughly 25% of HAND’s clients already utilize Meals on Wheels services. The acquisition was partially funded by a $264,980 grant from the St. David’s Foundation.

Express Scripts Funds Partnership With Hospital and Memory Care Company

Express Scripts has given $175,000 to fund a pilot program being developed by St. Louis-based Christian Hospital’s Community Access Program (CHAP) and Memory Care Home Solutions, which focuses on home care for those with dementia in St. Louis, Missouri. The program aims to enhance the health of seniors with dementia and their family caregivers.

The partnership between CHAP and Memory Care Home Solutions was brought to life by leaders at Express Script who saw an opportunity to positively impact the St. Louis area. The new partnership seeks to reduce the number of 911 calls, hospital readmissions and unnecessary emergency room visits for vulnerable populations.

Case managers and advanced practice paramedics from Christian Hospital have received specialized training from the staff at Memory Care Home Solution to help identify patients who use 911 because of dementia.

Stratice Healthcare Partners with CMB Solutions

Stratice Healthcare, has announced an agreement with CMB Solutions, a provider of patient support and contact services for the home medical equipment industry. Stractice Healthcare is a health care IT company that provides electronic ordering technology solutions that connects providers of home and durable medical equipment and supplies with medical offices and hospital systems

Stratice’s e-ordering application that is embedded within physicians’ existing electronic workflow, eDMEplus, is leveraged in the collaboration with CMB. Both Stratice and CMB can now offer HME/DME providers with the medical community.

The electronic connectivity takes the place of mostly paper-based ordering processes that currently require numerous phone calls, duplicative faxes and time-consuming data entry.

CMB is expected to complete its integration of eDMEplus in late August.

Medalogix Announces New Technology

Health care analytics company based in Nashville, Tennessee, Medalogix, has announced its newest prescriptive analytics technology, SunLeaper. The new solution leverages prescriptive analytics to recommend home health patient care plans based on the historical analysis of tens of thousands of patient records, care plans and outcomes.

The technology analyzes each patient’s physiological assessment based on how his or her health status compares to other patients’ outcomes before him or her. The technology will provide prescriptions that are broken down into specific disciplines, such as nursing or physical therapy.

This announcement comes after new data viewed by Vanderbilt scientists found Medalogix’s models were found to be more accurate than the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) publicly available risk adjustment models.

Medalogix plans to release an open API early next year to provide universal availability.

Oswego Health Home Care Hires New Director of Patient Services

Carrie Butler, RN, was named the new director of patient services at Oswego Health Home Care (OHHC) located in Fulton, New York. OHHC provides 24/7 skilled nursing, rehabilitation services and support services to its patients.

Butler brings more than 13 years of home care experience to OHHC. In her new position, she will work with staff members to develop patient care plans, as well as identify patients discharged from the hospital who could benefit from services at OHHC.

Prior to joining OHHC, Butler was a home health aide and advanced into a case manger. Later, she was a manager of clinical practice.

Written by Alana Stramowski