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Palliative care is commonly approached by providers as a solution to initiate at or near the end of a patient’s life. Often, the focus of care for chronic and complex illnesses becomes how to mitigate the disease process itself, but not always how to manage its impact on activities of daily living. In other words, “fixing” a disease process sometimes overshadows living with a disease, until the negative effects can no longer be ignored, and the cure is acknowledged as unlikely. The fundamental root of palliative care is to change that. A new understanding of palliative care Increasingly, it is…

There really is no place like home for the more than six million Americans living with dementia. These individuals face memory loss and other cognitive barriers that are severe enough to interfere with daily life, both in familiar and unfamiliar environments. This is why a trip to the hospital can turn someone living with dementia’s world upside down, often leading to delirium, functional decline, and distress.  With the number of people aged 65 and older diagnosed with dementia expected to increase to 12.7 million by 2050, our healthcare system faces a tremendous challenge in treating these patients. A report published…

Hospital systems are facing enormous pressures in a post-COVID environment. The past two years have seen major challenges in decreasing the cost of care, increasing revenue, managing staffing constraints and addressing shifting consumer demands. In the same way that the rest of the world has adapted to the many changes that the COVID pandemic introduced, the delivery of healthcare is evolving as well.   In rising to meet these challenges, novel approaches are necessary. Thankfully, hospital systems who turn to a partnership with Contessa find a source of innovative solutions for these key issues that hospital systems face today. Having Contessa…

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the challenges of providing adequate resources to patients who need inpatient hospital admission. To meet these challenges, health systems and health plans are turning to alternative approaches that deliver high-quality care outside the four walls of the hospital, while at the same time ensuring it is safe and affordable.  One solution at the forefront of this objective is hospital care at home. This care modality has evolved to meet the increasing demand for accessible acute care, by bringing hospital-level care to the home. Simply put, hospital care at home offers medical services in the home…

At home, we are our whole selves. At a hospital, we might barely be half.   To provide the most comprehensive and high-quality care that treats the whole person we must focus on elements of care that are usually not visible from within hospital walls.   The most important way Contessa addresses these social determinants of health is the setting of care—the home. The home environment expands providers’ ability to interact with patients and better understand their health behaviors.  It may seem obvious that providing care in the home gives providers a better window into their patients’ lives. But what might be…

There was a time when the only option for additional care after a hospital stay was to be transferred to a rehab or skilled nursing facility (or SNF). Contessa’s Rehabilitation Care at Home model changes that by offering a safe and effective alternative to the traditional skilled nursing facility stay. With this program, patients can return home and receive the same high-quality rehabilitation care they would receive in a facility.  Our care teams are designed and equipped to restore patients’ health while coordinating all the services, doctors, and other specialists that they need for up to 60 days. Patients who…

When thinking about the role of nurses, we often default to thinking about what happens within the hospital. With new modalities of care in new environments, however, today’s nursing jobs can take many different forms. At Contessa, we recognize that many nurses are seeking an alternative to hospital-based roles. Contessa’s nurses enjoy an experience that’s unique in three key areas:   Physical environment  People, knowledge, and training Patient interaction and care plans  Physical Environment  The most obvious difference between types of nursing jobs is where the patient care takes place. The site of care delivery changes the way care is delivered.…