Contessa Rolls Out Hospital-At-Home JV With Virginia Mason Franciscan Health

Contessa Health, a subsidiary of Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED), has teamed up with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (VMFH) to launch VMFH Home Recovery Care at the Tacoma, Washington-based St. Joseph Medical Center.

The Nashville, Tennessee-based Contessa specializes in shifting higher-acuity care into the home. On average, the company’s model lowers readmission rates by 44% and decreases the mean length of a hospital stay by 35%, according to data from Contessa.

“We are pleased to partner with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health to provide the region with greater access to high-quality care in the comfort of patients’ homes,” Contessa CEO Travis Messina said in a press release statement. “Contessa’s comprehensive home-based care model supports VMFH’s commitment to meeting the evolving needs of the communities they serve by giving their patients more choices for where to receive care.”

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On its end, VMFH is an integrated health system that serves the Puget Sound region in Washington.

VMFH Home Recovery Care is being positioned as an alternative to the traditional inpatient hospital stay for eligible St. Joseph Medical Center patients.

“As we launch VMFH Home Recovery Care, we look forward to defining a new standard for care delivery that improves patient outcomes, while lowering the overall cost of care,” Virginia Mason Franciscan Health CEO Ketul J. Patel said in the statement. “This innovative care model allows us to offer our patients a more convenient way to receive care while increasing our inpatient capacity for patients with the highest acuity.”

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Under VMFH Home Recovery Care, receive hospital-at-home care, which includes clinician support and access to the necessary medical equipment.

The program will be a combination of in-person and virtual care. It includes remote monitoring of blood pressure, pulse, heart rate and more. The care also consists of wound management, dressing changes, medication reconciliation and a focus on identifying social determinants of health.

VMFH Home Recovery Care is aimed at patients with conditions like COVID-19, RSV, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure and urinary tract infections.

Currently, it is only available for Medicare fee-for-service patients, but VMFH is working to expand the program to include patients under other health plans. The program also will look to widen its reach and serve other locations in the future.

Since Amedisys’ acquisition of Contessa in 2021, the latter has emerged as a core part of the formers’ JV strategy.

“We’re also seeing … hospitals that tried to do it on their own and fundamentally realize it’s way too complex for them to do on their own, and therefore they’re coming back to us and wanting to form JVs with us,” Amedisys CEO Paul Kusserow told Home Health Care News last month. “I feel really good about what we have at Contessa. The clients that we have are marquee clients – you can’t do any better than the list of clients that we have. I think the key is to go deeper with these clients.”

Amedisy formed a JV with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in October. The JV is part of the partnership between UAMS, Amedisys and Contessa.

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