According to a March 15 press release, St. Louis-based Mercy, one of the 25 largest U.S. health systems, and Maribel Health have signed a multi-year agreement to co-develop advanced care at home programs, including Mercy Hospital @ Home. Maribel Health offers clinical workflows, operating capacity, training, automation, and technology to clinical teams to provide care outside hospitals or clinics.
The press release states that “The program is designed to cover every aspect of clinically appropriate care, mirroring what is provided in the hospital, but instead providing it at home where patients can recover more comfortably. A dedicated team of acute care-level doctors and nurses will oversee patients through a combination of in-person and virtual visits. Patients will receive monitoring equipment, medication, therapy and other services as needed.”
Mercy Hospital @ Home will launch in the St. Louis region this summer and then expand across the states Mercy serves (Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas). Medicare patients can opt in to receive care at home vs. being admitted to a hospital, patients will have to meet certain criteria to be eligible for the program. Additionally, care coordinators will be available to patients and families for support, if needed.
Maribel was launched in 2021 through General Catalyst—a venture capital firm that provides early-stage and growth equity investments.
The press release adds that “Maribel's team of physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, health care entrepreneurs and technologists has overseen more than 15,000 hospital-at-home admissions, led the design of over a dozen successful advanced care-at-home programs, advised more than 100 hospitals and health systems, and designed, developed and deployed technology used in the care of more than 8 million patients. Mercy, with nearly two decades of virtual care experience and a successful track record of caring for chronically ill patients at home, treats approximately 200,000 hospital patients each year, in addition to the millions it serves across its clinics and other care settings.”
Ursula Wright, a family nurse practitioner and Mercy vice president of clinical redesign and optimization, was quoted in the release saying that "Hospitals will always be needed, though we must think differently in order to meet the changing needs of our patients. When someone is in the hospital, it can be difficult for them and create challenges for their loved ones in a variety of ways. For select patients, Mercy Hospital @ Home will reduce those burdens and provide patients a familiar environment where they can heal with the same high-quality care they expect from Mercy."
