Texas Health System to Implement New At-Home Care Options

Memorial Hermann Health System has entered into a partnership with Contessa to provide new inpatient, rehabilitative, and palliative at-home care options to its patients.

Memorial Hermann, based in Houston, includes a network of 6,200 physicians and 29,000 employees across 270 care delivery sites. Contessa, a company belonging to Amedisys, provides Home Recovery Care, a risk-based model that includes inpatient hospital care that patients can access from their homes by leveraging proprietary technology. 

Through the new partnership, Memorial Hermann will be able to offer acute hospital care, post-discharge skilled nursing care, and palliative care to their patients.

After receiving approval regarding eligibility, patients will be admitted into the at-home care model from the emergency room without being admitted as an inpatient. The collaboration will leverage both in-person and virtual care methods as well as remote patient monitoring devices to expand acute, rehabilitative, and palliative care options to the home.

Further, patients will be able to decide if they would like to receive rehabilitation following hospital care in their homes.

Palliative care, which provides highly ill patients and their families extra support, will also be offered to Memorial Hermann patients through the new partnership. This will include in-home or virtual visits from health system care teams, several 24-hour services, including physical, emotional, and spiritual support, and social services.

“Our new partnership with Contessa exemplifies Memorial Hermann’s commitment to deploying innovative care models by transforming our service lines to put the patient experience front and center,” said David Callender, MD, president and CEO of Memorial Hermann, in the press release. “Offering at-home care options gives our patients more convenient choices and truly puts them at the center of care delivery.”

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, efforts to expand the delivery of at-home care have skyrocketed. Like the work of Memorial Hermann and Contessa, this often occurs through partnerships.

In November 2021, UCI Health announced a collaboration with DispatchHealth. The two organizations are working together to provide direct-to-consumer at-home care, treating both simple and severe illnesses and chronic conditions. Open to residents of Orange County, the program also aims to connect patients to a primary care physician and identify care gaps.

Also in November 2021, Penn State Health announced it would be working with Highmark Health and Contessa to create an at-home acute care program. The program, known as Penn State Health Home Recovery Care, includes hospital-level and nursing care using a hybrid approach. By treating various chronic conditions, the program aims to improve patient outcomes while reducing costs.