Blessing Health System is one of two providers in the nation selected to participate in a project to improve health care to rural residents, in cooperation with Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health system innovation created by Harvard T. J. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts.
The three year research study will help to build, launch and evaluate providing hospital-level care in the homes of rural residents, instead of requiring the patient to go to the hospital, which can be a challenge in rural areas due to distance to the closest hospital and access to transportation.
Blessing’s program, “Hospital from Home,” is scheduled to admit its first patient on November 29, 2021.
“It is a great honor to be selected to participate in this research,” said Mary Frances Barthel, MD, MHCM, SFHM, FACP, Chief Quality and Safety Officer, Blessing Health System. Dr. Barthel and Julie Shepard, MS, Administrative Coordinator, Community Health Innovation, wrote the successful application for Blessing’s participation in the program.
“It was a highly competitive process, with hundreds of applications submitted from around the country,” Dr. Barthel continued. “Blessing demonstrated it had the capability and commitment to follow through with this vital, three year study.”
In addition to Blessing Health System, Appalachian Regional Healthcare, serving patients in eastern Kentucky and parts of West Virginia, was also selected for the Rural Home Hospital project.
“Blessing Health System is excited for the opportunity to participate in an initiative that offers the opportunity to provide hospital-level care in a patient’s home environment,” Shepard, added. “The Hospital from Home project will serve as a catalyst for our health system to be transformed into a rural health system of the future.”
The project will be a randomized, controlled trial. Of the Blessing patients who meet the guidelines over the three year period, half will be admitted to Blessing Hospital for care and the other half will receive hospital level health care from Blessing in their home. The outcomes of the two patient groups will be compared and contrasted to help build, launch and evaluate a nationwide Rural Home Hospital care system.