Gundersen Home Hospital expands to more patients
Gundersen Home Hospital Brings Hospital-Level Care into Patients’ Homes, Decreasing Unnecessary Hospital Stays and Improving Patient Outcomes
LaCrosse, WISC. – January 26, 2022. – When Cliff Johnson had trouble breathing, his wife took him to Gundersen Lutheran Hospital. The nearly 80-year-old lives with claustrophobia and was fearing nights alone in a hospital room. That’s when he was approached about Gundersen Home Hospital. He eagerly enrolled into the program.
“I was sent home at 4:30 pm. That night, I received an oxygen system with six tanks. A nurse came out with a kit that included a pulse oximeter, blood pressure cuff, scale, thermometer and tablet. He really took care of me and spent a lot of time with me and my wife,” said Johnson.
The acute care registered nurse saw Johnson in his home twice a day and used the tablet to round with his providers. Within days, Johnson was feeling better.
Gundersen Health System can now offer Home Hospital to more patients. The health system is approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to provide hospital-level care at home to Medicare fee-for-service patients. Gundersen Home Hospital, which brings all the essential elements of hospital care to the comfort of a patients’ home, launched through a partnership with Contessa, an Amedisys company (NASDAQ: AMED), in May 2021.
“There has never been a more crucial time for us to deliver hospital-level care at home than now,” said Heather Schimmers, chief operating officer and chief nursing officer, Gundersen Health System. “We are already seeing success with this care model. Providing this to Medicare fee-for-service patients allows us to serve more patients, both at home and in our hospital, with the quality care they deserve.”
Gundersen Home Hospital offers eligible patients, like Johnson, the option to have hospital-level care provided in their home through a combination of in-person and virtual care. Once a patient chooses the program, they begin receiving care at home within hours.
“It’s a wonderful program. It was very simple for me and my wife. I got the same results I would have if I was in the hospital, but I was home,” said Johnson.
Patients can be admitted to the program from the emergency department, like Johnson, or from the inpatient floor once they are stabilized. Gundersen Home Hospital frees up beds for the sickest patients, while still providing hospital-level care to more patients.
Gundersen Home Hospital is available for Quartz and Medicare fee-for-service patients at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse, WI.
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About Gundersen Health System
Gundersen Health System is a physician-led, non-profit, comprehensive integrated healthcare network headquartered in La Crosse, Wis. More than 9,000 employees, including nearly 1,000 clinicians, serve people in 22 counties in western Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, and northeast Iowa. With more than one million patient visits every year across our seven hospitals and more than 60 clinic locations, Gundersen’s purpose is to enhance the health and well-being of our communities and enrich every life we touch. Learn more about our excellence in patient care, education, research and something we call Love + Medicine at gundersenhealth.org.
About Contessa
Based in Nashville, Contessa is the leader and pioneer of Home Recovery Care, a risk-based model that combines all the essential elements of inpatient hospital care in the comfort of patients’ homes. Founded in 2015, Contessa utilizes Care Convergence – a proprietary technology platform – to power the seamless delivery of Home Recovery Care that is safe, affordable and improves patient outcomes. Contessa’s turnkey solution provides upfront savings to health plans, enables health systems to reinvent their care delivery model and helps physicians deliver a better experience for patients.
For more information, visit contessahealth.com or follow us at @contessahealth.
About Amedisys
Amedisys, Inc. is a leading healthcare at home company delivering personalized home health, hospice and personal care. Amedisys is focused on delivering the care that is best for our patients, whether that is home-based personal care; recovery and rehabilitation after an operation or injury; care focused on empowering them to manage a chronic disease; or hospice care at the end of life. More than 2,900 hospitals and 78,000 physicians nationwide have chosen Amedisys as a partner in post-acute care. Founded in 1982, headquartered in Baton Rouge, LA with an executive office in Nashville, TN, Amedisys is a publicly held company. With approximately 21,000 employees in 519 care centers within 39 states and the District of Columbia, Amedisys is dedicated to delivering the highest quality of care to the doorsteps of more than 418,000 patients and clients in need every year. For more information about the company, please visit: www.amedisys.com.
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