Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente invest in at-home acute level care 

Photo: Luis Alvarez/Getty Images

Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente have invested in Medically Home Group, a Boston-based technology company that allows patients to receive acute-level care and recovery services at home.

The partnership will begin with a reported $100 million combined investment in Medically Home Group, according to Forbes.

Both Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente are currently using Medically Home's care-delivery model and are encouraging other health systems and care providers to adopt it to build capacity at a time when demand is growing for acute care at home. 

The health systems said regulatory and legislative barriers are being addressed to allow patients across the U.S. to receive these services.

Key features of Medically Home's virtual and physical care delivery model include monitoring and safety system technology in the home, an around-the-clock medical command center staffed by clinicians and an integrated care team in the community that delivers in-person care.

Care delivery is integrated with the patient's electronic health record.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Medically Home's technology and services platform enables providers to address a range of clinical conditions at the higher end of the acuity spectrum that are typically treated in hospital settings, including routine infections and chronic disease exacerbations, emergency medicine, cancer care, transfusions and acute level of COVID-19 care.

One of the demonstrated results is that patients hospitalized using the Medically Home model have a lower need for recurring hospitalization at 30 and 90 days following a care episode, according to a released statement from the company.

"Increasingly, the future of healthcare will be outside the four walls of the hospital," said Dr. Stephen Parodi, executive vice president of the Permanente Federation.

"Rarely in the history of medicine do we see such a perfect alignment of policy, technology and cultural transformation converging to produce a new care paradigm like acute care at home," said Dr. John Halamka, president of Mayo Clinic Platform. "We can advance the well-being of patients by catalyzing innovative, collaborative, knowledge-driven platform business models to redefine the standard of high-acuity care for patients with serious or complex illnesses who currently receive care in hospitals."

THE LARGER TREND

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the model helped combat patient isolation and loneliness, allowing family members to be at the patient's bedside at home while helping hospitals balance the increased demands for hospital beds.

The combination of patient demand for consumer-centered models and technology-driven innovations, the need for flexible capacity within hospitals, and the regulations allowing nonhospital space to be used for patient care during the COVID-19 emergency gave rise to telemedicine services, including offering hospital care in the home setting.

Mayo Clinic launched its advanced care at home program last summer at Mayo Clinic in Florida and Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Care is delivered by a network of community paramedics and nurses, and a team under Mayo Clinic's clinical direction.

Kaiser Permanente launched its Hospital at-Home program in two regions last year, admitting patients from multiple hospitals across both its Northern California and Oregon locations. In this model, Kaiser Permanente has a single medical command center in each region supporting multiple hospitals to care for patients.

In addition, nonprofit organizations such as Adventist Health, ProMedica and UNC Health, use Medically Home's model of care. Medically Home also partners with Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in its randomized clinical trial of supportive oncology care in the home. The group is also working with partners including Huron and Cardinal Health. 

ON THE RECORD

"Patients expect and deserve high-quality care and excellent outcomes in a convenient and comfortable setting, even when faced with complex medical challenges," said Dr. Gianrico Farrugia, president and CEO of Mayo Clinic. "Our partnership with Kaiser Permanente and Medically Home will create the next generation of patient-centric, compassionate healthcare that seamlessly integrates advanced technology with clinical expertise."

Greg Adams, chair and CEO of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals, said, "While the pandemic has put a spotlight on the limitations of brick-and-mortar healthcare delivery, this important expansion of Medically Home's resources will help fill a critical need going forward."

Twitter: @SusanJMorse
Email the writer: susan.morse@himssmedia.com