Last month, Ascension Saint Thomas and Nashville-based Contessa have announced a partnership to offer patients Home Recovery Care, an emerging healthcare option that brings all the essential elements of inpatient care to the comfort and convenience of patients' homes.

"Home Recovery Care" aligns with Ascension's Mission-Inspired Transformation initiative, to meet individuals where they are in their healthcare journey by making quality care convenient and accessible in their homes. The Mission-Inspired Transformation will reimagine new ways of providing care, calling leaders to improve health and well-being, and to advance from the historical strategic focus on healthcare to an expanded focus on healthcare and health.

"The aim is to keep people healthy while understanding hospital care is sometimes needed. When hospital level care is needed, we will offer the patient's home as a site of care to continue serving as the high quality, low cost health system offering an exceptional experience for our providers, patients and families," said Amber Sims, chief strategy officer, Ascension Saint Thomas. "We are proud to be the first health system in Tennessee to provide a choice on where individuals we serve are receiving hospital-level care."

Nashville-based Contessa is the nation's leading operator of Home Recovery Care, facilitating hospital-level care for patients in the home by providing three key elements: the clinical model that enables safe delivery of hospital-level care in the home; the administrative capabilities to be reimbursed by health plans; and Care Convergence, a proprietary technology platform that supports the clinical and administrative functions.

Home Recovery Care is offered to patients with acute, non-life threatening medical conditions, such as congestive heart failure, dehydration or pneumonia. Patients will first be evaluated by a Saint Thomas doctor to determine if they can be safely treated in the home to receive care in a comfortable and familiar environment. The Saint Thomas clinical team will be available 24/7 through telehealth, acute care nurses in the home, and a recovery care coordinator, who is also a registered nurse, serving as the primary contact for patients. Home Recovery Care will be available for patients at Saint Thomas Midtown and West hospitals this fall, followed by Saint Thomas Rutherford and surrounding communities.