Fighting COVID-19 with Home Recovery Care

1. The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged all of us in more ways than we thought possible. There are no playbooks for the chokehold this disease currently has on the world, and particularly on our nation’s healthcare industry. Healthcare’s brightest leaders are learning new response techniques every day.

But here’s one thing we do know: Given the tremendous strain COVID-19 is putting on our healthcare delivery system, access to home recovery care has never been more important.

Since 2015, Contessa has worked with some of the nation’s most forward-looking health systems and health plans to make hospital-level care available in the comfort of patients’ homes. Our model frees up hospital beds, caregiver capacity, and resources for more serious conditions and prevents patients from contracting this horrible virus.

Case in point: When leaders at Mount Sinai Health System, a Contessa partner in New York City, realized the virus had begun infecting New Yorkers at an alarming rate, they reached out to see if we could help them avoid a capacity crisis. Our home recovery care team immediately started moving non-COVID patients out of the hospital to receive care at home. And, within 10 days of initial outreach, we evolved our model to also include treatment for patients who tested positive for the virus.

This strategy was effective at treating patients in NYC, the epicenter of the epidemic last spring. As COVID-19 spikes across the country, we’ve executed this same plan to help our partners deal with a patient surge.  Our adaptable care model has helped control patient surges at the Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin, Dignity Health in Phoenix, and Prisma Health in South Carolina. All of our health system partners are building Contessa into their disaster preparedness plans, which is a testament to our proven success.

I’m incredibly proud of our team’s ability to quickly prepare our partners for patient surges and adapt to this unpredictable virus. But our job continues, and we are working alongside health systems, payers, government leaders, and others to protect patients and caregivers during this extraordinary time. Above all, we join with the standing ovations taking place across America to honor the spirit of selflessness and servitude that caregivers have demonstrated in the face of this pandemic.

We are proud to stand with you. Thank you.