Christopher McCann says hospitals should not dwell on the past.
McCann is the CEO of Current Health, a technology company that helps health systems deliver home health services, including home hospital programs. The Scottish medtech leader sees great promise in providing acute care at home, but understands why some healthcare leaders may be tempted to focus on care in hospitals.
“I think hospitals are in a tough place right now,” McCann said. “They’re seeing their volumes and revenues go down, and their costs are higher, much higher. So I think a lot of leaders are saying, ‘We’re going to focus on what we know best, which is hospitalization, in bed. ‘”
“We’re also seeing a lot of hospitals recognize that the future is going to be different and we can’t just invest in what we’ve done in the past,” he continued. “We have to invest in the future.”
That means considering more home care, including more acute care, he said.
“The future is not just about hospitalization,” McCann said. “Everyone agrees that part of the future of care will be home care. So we have to think about that future.”
McCann with Chief Healthcare Education During the HLTH meeting in November. He shares his thoughts on the changing healthcare landscape, how he believes Best Buy’s acquisition of Current Health positions the company for growth, and how healthcare leaders can ensure home care can succeed.
There will always be a place in the hospital, but he said some patients can be well cared for at home.
“To me, it’s about how we can provide these individual populations with the right care in the right place at the right time, without clichés,” McCann said. (Check out some of our conversation in this video. The story continues below. )
growing market
More hospitals have been offering acute home care during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the federal government gives health systems more flexibility to provide acute care at home. Congress and President Biden agreed to extend those flexibilities for two years in the $1.7 trillion comprehensive spending plan that Biden signed into law in late December.
Kyle Zebley, senior vice president of public policy for the American Telemedicine Association, said the home hospital program is “one of the most innovative testing programs that have come out during the pandemic.” Chief Healthcare Executive in December. He called the extension of the stay-at-home exemption “a huge win”.
To date, 260 hospitals (114 health systems) in 37 states are offering home hospital programs, according to federal government data.
With more systems launching or at least exploring such options, McCann said, “we’re very, very optimistic about the current growth trajectory.”
Current Health is working with more than 20 health systems.
“We work with many of the nation’s leading health systems, such as Geisinger, UMass, NYU and Mount Sinai,” McCann said. “We’re working across the U.S. to support at-home care all the way through to chronic disease management. We’re trying to be a single solution, whether it’s acute patients who are hospitalized at home, or chronic disease management patients.”
join best buy
Best Buy’s acquisition of the company bodes well for its long-term prospects, he said. The retailer, known for its computers and electronics, entered the health care space when it acquired Current Health for $400 million in 2021.
Through the acquisition, Current Health’s technology is combined with Best Buy’s strengths in logistics and supply chain management. The health system “is excited about these capabilities,” McCann said.
Best Buy has brought in experienced healthcare leaders, he added. He noted that Deborah DiSanzo, president of Best Buy Health, has been in the health care industry for 30 years. Best Buy built “a proper medical team,” McCann said.
“I think they’re engaging in a very thoughtful way, and it’s a mature and intelligent point of view in my opinion,” McCann said. “They knew they needed a company like us, and they went out and looked at the market, and thankfully they thought we were the best. The timing for us came at the right time. We thought that to be successful in this space, Best Buy needed to have something. So it came together really well.”
looking to the future
While many healthcare leaders believe more treatment is moving to the home, McCann sees the future as a mix of home care and in-hospital care.
“A lot of people say homes are going to replace hospitals. I don’t think that’s true,” McCann said. “There are a lot of people who need to be in the hospital. The inpatient setting is always where care needs to be delivered.
“The problem for me is that a certain percentage of care that is hospitalized today can be provided at home,” he added. “I think we’ve definitely seen COVID, that’s true.”
Part of Current Health’s focus is moving beyond acute care towards home chronic disease management and post-acute transition care.
“Health systems don’t want to provide niche solutions for individual populations,” McCann said. “They want a solution that can support them across the enterprise.” “Patients don’t just live in these silos,” he said. “We want to follow them as they move from the hospital at home to chronic care and back to the hospital at home, providing consumers with an integrated experience, not a bunch of bits and pieces, but one that accompanies them throughout their journey .”
Proponents point to encouraging research showing that home hospitalization programs have good outcomes for patients, including reducing readmissions.
Still, some healthcare leaders have been reluctant to invest in home care programs and other home-based technology initiatives. According to a recent survey of healthcare executives by Sage Growth Partners, while many healthcare leaders see the potential for such initiatives to improve patient care, many do not see extending services to the home as a top priority. Some are also waiting for more assurances about long-term federal reimbursement.
Still, McCann said patients say they want more care options at home, and healthcare leaders should consider patient preferences.
“In the future, consumers will choose their providers based on who provides these services and who doesn’t,” McCann said. “You have to do it now, or you’ll be five years behind.”
make the program work
While there are technical needs in implementing the home hospital program, it’s not the most difficult challenge, McCann said.
“I say this as a technology leader, technology is not the most important part of it,” McCann said. “It ensures you have broad support across the organization.”
Hospital administrators need to make sure the family hospital program is a key priority, not just a side project, he said.
“It needs the support of the CEO,” McCann said. “It needs clinical leaders, it needs nursing leaders, it needs IT leaders, and they all have to be bought together.”
Hospitals must establish clinical workflows and select appropriate patients. Some patients may become so ill that they need to be hospitalized.
The most successful family hospital programs also have strong leadership from nurses, McCann said.
“They play a very important role in running the program at an administrative level, helping to identify patients … and spending a lot of time caring for those patients at home,” he said.
Nurses who participated in the family hospital program reported higher job satisfaction, which McCann called a welcome surprise.
“They’re actually able to come in and provide care in whatever way they can,” he said. “If they have eight patients on one floor and they’re paged every two minutes and they’re called away, they can’t spend a lot of time with that patient.”
McCann said the programs won’t lead to nurse replacements, saying they’re critical to getting home hospitals to work.
“These programs can only be successful if you have a great nursing and medical team,” he said.
“We have to do away with the term ‘virtual care,'” he said. “It’s not virtual, it’s still physical care. We need nurses to come into homes and provide care. It’s not about changing staff.”
Ultimately, McCann said, Current Health’s success will be built on showing health systems the clinical and economic case for home hospital programs and their success in patient care and satisfaction.
But another key factor, he said, is satisfying an often overlooked constituent: providers.
“Their experience has to be amazing,” McCann said. “They have to do it easier than having a patient lay on the floor, or they wouldn’t do it.
“We have to make the provider and clinician experience incredible, and I don’t think people pay enough attention to that last part,” he added. “They were sort of left out and I think that was a mistake.”
