A partnership between Medical Mutual, Conduit Health Services and hospital-at-home provider DispatchHealth has resulted in high rates of consumer satisfaction.
DispatchHealth represents the home care arm of the partnership with Medical Mutual, a health payer organization based in Ohio, and Conduit Health Services, a strategic services provider. As a part of the partnership’s structure, Medical Mutual patients can call the 24/7 Conduit nurse-first triage line. Should the registered nurse (RN) determine that the patient meets established criteria for a home visit, they confer with Dispatch for further evaluation. If Dispatch deems a home care provision is necessary, it sends a mobile unit made up of either a nurse practitioner or physician assistant and a medical technician to the patients’ home.
The collaboration has proven successful, according to Conduit. As the partnership has been in place over the past two years, 95.8% of patients have been “satisfied or very satisfied” when calling the nurse line. Patients have also been satisfied by DispatchHealth’s ability to ”provide 60–70% of traditional ED care in the comfort of a patient’s home.”
“Because patients value this benefit, employers can promote it to their employees,” a case study report said. “Even if it’s a benefit an employer already provides, it demonstrates how they value and support their workforce by offering competitive, valuable benefits that other employers may not offer.”
Conduit provided a case study to demonstrate the process by which the partnership operates.
A male Medical Mutual with hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease and gout — called “Member A” — “ had pain in the left knee after falling at a restaurant two weeks prior,” the report said. “He called the Medical Mutual Nurse Line. After an assessment, the nurse sent a DispatchHealth care team to Member A’s home for further evaluation.”
Dispatch’s mobile team completed X-rays and gave medication to Member A and scheduled a follow-up appointment with a primary care provider. Conduit said the visit lasted 40 minutes.
