Provider Spotlight: Dr. Teague, Prisma Health Home Recovery Care
Prisma Health Upstate covers Greenville, South Carolina, and the surrounding, more rural, areas. Its recent population boom, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, is saturating the health system with patients. Dr. Leigh Teague, Chief, Division of Hospitalist Medicine at Prisma Health Upstate, knew he needed to find a way to off-load the volume while still providing high-level care.
Cue Contessa and its Home Recovery Care model.
“Professionally, I followed the concept of hospital at home and was very interested in the program,” said Dr. Teague, who also serves as Medical Director for Prisma Health Home Recovery Care. “When I met with the folks at Contessa, I knew it was a partnership that would benefit our unique patient population. I’m continuously impressed with the level of services and amount of care we can safely deliver in the home.”
Prisma Health partnered with Contessa to launch Home Recovery Care in 2019. The care-model brings hospital-level care into patients’ homes, allowing Prisma Health providers to see patients virtually. Patients are sent home with remote patient monitoring devices and are visited by a registered nurse daily.
Over the past year, Prisma Health Home Recovery Care has expanded its services and locations, with plans to continue that growth in the coming years. Home Recovery Care is becoming a popular choice for patients, who prefer recovering in the comfort of their homes. Dr. Teague notes that some patients are asking for Home Recovery Care when they check into the emergency department.
“It is rewarding to see how well patients are responding to the care-model. They love sleeping in their own beds, eating their own food, and not getting woken up in the middle of the night by a nurse. Home Recovery Care also allows us to get a comprehensive, holistic look at the patients’ well-being. We have the ability to address health disparities or connect patients with additional resources and therapies that we wouldn’t have otherwise known they needed.”
Prisma Health Home Recovery Care is fully integrated, providing a full continuum of care to patients. Patients enter the program from a participating Prisma Health location and are sent home with Prisma Home Health nursing care. This ease of transition and continuity of care increases patient satisfaction and outcomes.
“With Home Recovery Care, we are delivering the right level of care, at the right time, in the right location.”