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Lauren lives in Middlefield, CT with her husband Brenton, their two boys, Jack (6), Ben (3) and their dog Leo. She earned a bachelor’s degree in healthcare management from the University of Connecticut and her MBA from the University of Tampa. Before starting with Contessa in March of 2022, she spent the last decade working in contract analytics at Aetna. She enjoys traveling, drinking coffee and crafts with her boys. What does a Manager of Medical Economics do at Contessa? The Medical Economics team is responsible for creating episode-based pricing proposals. To do this we analyze historical payer data and…
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Amanda has spent most of her life living in Bucks County, PA. She attended the University of Pittsburgh and graduated with a Bachelor of Natural Sciences degree. During her time at the university, she spent time volunteering at hospitals, as well as participating in healthcare-based research and volunteering as an EMT. Her fulfilling experiences pushed her into the nursing field, so following her first degree, she pursued a Bachelor of Nursing at Thomas Jefferson University and graduated in 2015. Most of her nursing career has been at Penn State Hershey Medical Center as a bedside nurse, where she spent the…
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At Contessa, Amedisys’ high-acuity service line, nurses have the unique opportunity to join the Recovery Care at Home program as an Acute Care Registered Nurse (ACRN). Like their hospital counterparts, ACRNs are responsible for starting the patient’s care, including performing a comprehensive nursing assessment, medication reconciliation, safety assessments and implementing standardized protocols. In the Recovery Care at Home program, however, this high-acuity, hospital-level care is provided in the comfort of the patient’s home. So, what does a day in the life of an ACRN look like? How is it different from working at the bedside in a hospital, often with…
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Home Healthcare News | February 3, 2023 Contessa Health, a subsidiary of Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED), has teamed up with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (VMFH) to launch VMFH Home Recovery Care at the Tacoma, Washington-based St. Joseph Medical Center. The Nashville, Tennessee-based Contessa specializes in shifting higher-acuity care into the home. On average, the company’s model lowers readmission rates by 44% and decreases the mean length of a hospital stay by 35%, according to data from Contessa. Click here to read the full article.
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Over the past few years, we’ve seen a rapid shift in the prioritization of medical care at home programs. Clearly, COVID-19 was a big driver of this phenomenon. However, care at home has continued to drive the future of healthcare even post-pandemic. Increasingly, patients are demanding it, and studies are showing that it improves outcomes. One of many factors behind this push for medical care in the home vs. a facility is the aging US population. By the year 2060, the number of Americans aged 65 and older is projected to comprise 23% of the population. And, of that population…
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Deidra has been a registered nurse for 31 years and started her career in a small rural hospital where she was cross-trained in all departments. She became an emergency medical technician (EMT) in 2001, and advanced to assistant director of that service, which she retired from in 2019. Deidra joined Marshfield Clinic Health System as a nurse in 2001. She first worked on a post-operative unit servicing orthopedic, gynecology and urology patients until 2013. She then took a role in the education department, helping to onboard new hire RNs. In 2016, Deidra had the opportunity to join Contessa as its…
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Even as a physician, navigating a recent medication change took me two weeks of frustrating back and forth phone calls and messages to my doctor, pharmacy and insurance company. My insurance payer had changed the approved brand of medication, the pharmacy had listed incompatible alternatives and my physician was not updated on any of this. In spite of my familiarity with healthcare and its systems, I had become a casualty of a phenomenon known as healthcare fragmentation. In the United States, the structure of the healthcare system and its many services, initiatives and programs often results in healthcare fragmentation. Although…
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For those of us in good health, spending time at home is something we largely take for granted. It is the hub of our everyday lives, where memories are made, and time is spent with loved ones; a place for rest and relaxation. It’s no surprise, then, that many people express a desire to receive their healthcare at home, rather than away from it. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted this preference, as telehealth services grew at an astonishing rate. Fears of infection exposure, challenges with overcrowded hospitals, and the Medicare Hospitals Without Walls waivers drove highly skilled medical care home as…
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The past three years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have unmistakably been a period of rapid growth for healthcare services that focus on medical care in the home. Like any evolving model of care, this kind of healthcare must not compromise high-quality care for patients as it solidifies its position in the industry. At Contessa, we’re proud to be able to say that our evolution from a leading hospital care at home provider to the leading provider of a full continuum of medical care in the home is setting the standard for high-quality, safe and effective care in…
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When faced with a serious illness, unexpected complications can often land patients in the hospital at the same time they are already trying to manage other healthcare stressors. Afifa experienced this firsthand when side effects from her chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer brought her to the emergency room at Marshfield Medical Center in early September. “I had major symptoms—diarrhea, nausea, dehydration, and extreme fatigue,” Afifa recalls. “My magnesium and potassium levels were low as well, so they had to admit me to the hospital.” But Afifa was resistant to the idea of staying in the hospital. She says that…
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