The new CEO of hospital-at-home technology company Medically Home, Graham Barnes, is focused on reducing the cost of home-based care and extending it to more health systems.
Boston-based Medically Home provides the technology platform and some staffing that helps about 20 health systems to extend hospital-level care to patients where they live. The eight-year-old company gained traction during the COVID-19 pandemic when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services launched the Acute Care at Home waiver that allows hospitals and health systems to free up beds by treating people in the community. The waiver expires at the end of the year unless Congress extends it.
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Barnes’ arrival earlier this month at Medically Home comes as the company is expanding. Medically Home announced a partnership in May with Siemens Healthineers to extend more diagnostic services into the home. In June, it announced plans with Edison, New Jersey-based Hackensack Meridian Health to introduce hospital-at-home to the system's 18 hospitals.
Barnes brings nearly three decades of experience in healthcare technology to the company, with leadership expertise in acute care staffing, care coordination, supply chain management and electronic medical records. He said his professional background and personal experience of seeing both of his parents die in the hospital helped draw him to Medically Home. The interview was edited for length and clarity.
How does your experience with technology apply to Medically Home and in-home care?
Hospital-at-home is a huge challenge. It requires such a coordination of different resources. ... The network of suppliers in the home requires a real focus and bending that cost curve in delivering services to the home. The triple aim is to not only deliver an improved patient experience, but also improve the quality of care as well as reduce costs. That is the whole economic advantage of delivering care in low-cost settings. My experience has relevant touch points throughout all of those different areas.
How can technology be used to expand hospital-at-home and reduce its costs?
Technology is constantly evolving and is one of the ways to bend the cost curve, by being able to do a lab test in the home without having to send it out. We are technology-agnostic, and there are great opportunities to include new technologies. One of our partners has a mobile truck that they send to the home that includes very elaborate kits with equipment that many people assume would have to be provided in the hospital, but can be provided in the home.
Are you confident about the future of the hospital-at-home program?
I think like everybody else, we believe that there is tremendous momentum to continue this valued service under the CMS waiver, and we see support from both sides [of Congress] for that. We anticipate that it will be successful and will be renewed for multiple years.
I think there have been some doubts about the cost-reduction ability of delivering hospital-level care in the home. But we have clinical evidence about the effectiveness of that care and cost reduction. It is a cost-saving opportunity. I think there is an opportunity to help people understand there is an economic advantage to be[ing] able to pursue this model. ... My main focus is having a more robust discussion around the financial value and the clinical value of these programs. I think that is a great benefit to everybody involved.
Do you have expansion plans for Medically Home?
We have great customers and clients and a lot of opportunities for expansion. Our main goal is scalability and volume so we can really deliver to our current customers additional capabilities to enhance acute care at home. There is plenty of opportunity in what we are currently doing.
That said, there are future opportunities throughout post-acute care that we are ideally positioned to provide. There is a whole continuum of care that could and should be provided in the home for truly patient-centered medicine. As we look at continuity of care and gaps in care across transitions, the service coordination capability that we offer at Medically Home can be readily applied to these other aspects of care.
Is expanding hospital-at-home in rural communities a priority?
It is a more challenging model to move into rural communities. However, there is a huge need in these more disadvantaged communities to provide acute care services. [In-home care] is very hard for the hospital organizations to perform, so it is more reasonable for them to do it through a partnership with an organization that can provide additional coverage to do that. We have everything in place. It is just a matter of expanding with our partners to ensure that we have coverage and can deliver high-quality services in those areas. I think there is tremendous interest from hospitals to figure out how to serve rural areas. It’s a big challenge and I think it’s an opportunity for future work.
