Home is Where the HEALTH is
Home is Where the HEALTH is
Improving Clinical Outcomes and Business Performance Through Partnerships
In this episode, we discuss partnerships and why health systems, physician practices and other types of organizations are focused with Compassus on improving home based care with our guest, Jeff Marsh, Chief Growth Officer at Compassus. We address how such partnerships improve clinical outcomes and business performance and share a personal story about how this work transforms lives.
Hi everyone, I'm Ashton Jones and this is Home is where the health is. This podcast brings you the latest news on progress and innovation in the home based healthcare space in association with compasses. At the end of the day every person deserves to be cared for with compassion, whether they're recovering at home dealing with a serious illness or nearing the end of life, and in the place they call home no less. That's why every month we feature different subject matter experts, and we dive deep into how their work is improving home based care for patients. In today's episode, we're discussing partnerships and why health systems physician practices and other types of organizations are focused with compasses on improving home based care with our guest, Jeff Marsh, Chief growth officer at compasses will address how such partnerships improve clinical outcomes and business performance. And we'll share a personal story with you about how this work is transforming lives. There's all that more coming up on Home is where the health is. Hey, everyone, it's so great to be back for our second episode of Home is where the health is. Thank you to everyone who tuned in last time for our first episode on advanced care management with Jordan Holland. Our podcast already has over 200 downloads and that's all thanks to you as listeners. So today we have a great guest on today compasses his chief growth officer Jeff Marsh, Jeff, how are you today?
Jeff Marsh:I'm doing great, Ashton. Thanks for having me on your show. Yeah,
Ashton Jones:of course. So thank you for agreeing to guest hosts. I want to start off today's episode by telling our listeners a little bit more about you. Maybe let's start off personally, your family life. Your interests, likes, dislikes.
Jeff Marsh:Well, I'm into music I enjoy listening to and also perfect for for performing with fellow colleagues and friends. I had a I had a band when I was up in Michigan and moving to Tennessee, I thought it'd be really easy to find other musicians to play with. And I got busy with work. And that wasn't quite the case. So I enjoy the fact that I share a lot of common interests with many of my fellow colleagues here at compasses. My wife and I have been married for almost 20 years. So if you've got any good 20 year anniversary ideas, you or listeners, I'm yeah, I'm ears wide open here. We've got two dogs. Both rescues we've had rescues throughout the 20 years we've been married a total of six dogs over the course of our marriage.
Ashton Jones:Okay, well, I have to know the two dogs names
Jeff Marsh:are our oldest dog right now is about three years old. Her name is Lola and me is our new puppy. She's about eight months old. Oh,
Ashton Jones:that's so sweet. So how about your professional life? What do you want people to know? Sure. Well,
Jeff Marsh:for starters, I've spent my whole career in health care. I've spent that time building partnerships with customers who want to improve the efficiency of how healthcare is delivered, while also improving the health and the outcomes for their patients or their member populations. I'm a nurse by education. I attended the University of Toledo and the Medical University of Ohio near where I grew up. I also learned pretty early that I was more drawn to the business side of healthcare than I was the actual clinical delivery. And I was fortunate to find an entrepreneurial startup company right after I graduated that was focused on primarily wellness and prevention and worked with payers and large employers to build and deliver programs that were aimed at improving the health and well being of populations.
Ashton Jones:So as we said, You are the chief growth officer at compasses. So tell us a little bit more about what growth means to you that includes your team, your role and the value that it brings to the organization? Yeah,
Jeff Marsh:well, I'm responsible for the company's growth across our various service lines. That growth includes expanding access to more patients across the 29 states that we serve. As well as advancing our partnerships and product strategy to payers in the value based care initiatives similar to what Jordan talked about in the first podcast. What I really love about the job is we're always innovating. We're constantly innovating with our partners developing new products, services and ways to meet the objectives of those that we support.
Ashton Jones:And how about how you found yourself in the home based care space and then specifically compasses.
Jeff Marsh:Sure i i joined compasses in 2017. It was about that time when compasses was venturing into new types of business development, namely, forming partnerships with large national organizations, and I was recruited from my former employer to build out a partnership or an account management function for our first couple of national Preferred Provider agreements.
Ashton Jones:Yeah, and that kind of brings us to our first main topic of the day. So today we are touching on partnerships with home based care providers. So, Jeff, what is a partnership with compasses involve
Jeff Marsh:a partnership with compasses could take on a number of different forms. Some are focused on creating a real high performing narrow network. Others involve the purchase and the implementation of value based care products, like we were just talking about. Other partnerships can be structured as joint ventures and these jayvees, or joint ventures are really becoming our most common type of partnership.
Ashton Jones:Yeah, and so what type of organizations do you focus on?
Jeff Marsh:As far as organizations, we're really focused on partnering with health systems, as well as provider groups, particularly those provider groups that are leading the charge in advancing value based care initiatives?
Ashton Jones:And so how are health systems thinking about home based care?
Jeff Marsh:Well, they're mindful of the the shift in care, from an acute environment, really into delivery of care in the home. And in many cases, health systems have their own home based care services. And again, these services may include home health, home infusion therapy, palliative and or and hospice care. And many of these health systems acknowledge that having a partner like compasses, who this is all we do we specialize in the provision of care in the home can really help them improve their overall performance of those services. And so some of the some of the performance measures might include quality of care, quality of care through the star rating performance through productivity, but also the financial performance of those assets.
Ashton Jones:And, you know, we'll touch on those star ratings in just a moment. But how does the approach vary from one health system to another?
Jeff Marsh:Yeah, each health system that we've worked with has their own unique challenges, those unique challenges can be due to the geography where they're at in the country we operate in in 29 states. So we've worked with health systems from the northeast, up in the Maine, New Hampshire area, all the way into Texas, Arizona, New Mexico. And each one of them is very different. Yeah. Some of the common themes across health systems and the focuses are on their overall hospital length of stay on their rehospitalization rates, their inpatient mortality. And on the just the continuity of care associated with the provision of home based services.
Ashton Jones:So going along with that, do you have an example that you can share about how, you know we're helping out health systems?
Jeff Marsh:Sure. That's a great question. Case in point, we've had remarkable improvement in our Home Health Star Rating performance with one of our health system partners, we took over operational responsibility in 2020. And at that time, the home health programs had an average between a two and a four star on Medicare's five star rating scale. Yeah, none of their programs were five star, which is as good as you can get. Within two years, our average star rating is now approaching 4.3. With all of our programs above a 3.5. And I believe this year, all of our programs will be over four star. That's amazing.
Ashton Jones:Yeah. And we've touched on the star ratings a couple of times so far. Can you revisit that and elaborate on what the star ratings are for any of our listeners who might not be familiar?
Jeff Marsh:Yeah, it's a great question, Ashton. The star rating system, in its most basic explanation is an apples to apples comparison through Medicare standards of the quality of care that's being delivered by a home health agency.
Ashton Jones:Well, congratulations on that. That's amazing to see those ratings go up such a significant amount. Well, thanks.
Jeff Marsh:The credit goes to our clinicians and clinical leaders throughout the organization. They're really top notch.
Ashton Jones:Well, with that, we're going to take a quick break from our main discussion to share a story with you. And the reason we want to spend some time on a single story is because when you're looking at the big picture, it's so easy to forget all of the people who are impacted by this work. And at the end of the day, it's all about touching a life. So before we get started, I asked Jeff to come prepared with the story to share with all of you something that's impacted him both professionally and personally. So Jeff, your story is related to caring for the person not just the patient, is that right?
Jeff Marsh:That's right, Ashton, we call that our care for who I am culture. And it's really a focus on the who I am in understanding who the individual really is not just being focused on their diagnosis. And I've had some of the most amazing opportunities to hear some of these Person Centered stories over the last several years. It's a, it's an ask that I make to our care consultants, when they first get hired with our company. As they go through training. I asked them, please share with me some of the patient's stories that you helped create out in the community. One of the stories that still resonates with me and when somebody asks me the question you did what what story first comes to mind when you think about the impact that capacitor is having I think about a, an experience that we created for a patient about three years ago. And this was a, this was a patient but also a resident of a nursing home. And this was right during the start of COVID. And as I'm sure you remember, COVID was most challenging for nursing home residents. Yeah, for sure. And it was about a patient named Marjorie and Marjorie was a well known watercolor artist through the 1970s into the 1990s. And each year, she would have her work put on display in art fairs throughout the community. And when our Care Consultant actually went to the home of Marjorie's children to go through the documentation process for enrolling her in our hospice program. She noticed that throughout the whole home, the walls were covered with paintings and portraits that Marjorie had done over her lifetime. And we got to thinking, again, more about who this individual was, Marjorie had been diagnosed with dementia. And so she could no longer paint, but she still had an eye for color and an eye for beauty. And so our team worked closely with the nursing home to put on in an art fair, within the nursing home. And this was a really challenging thing to try to coordinate during the beginning of a pandemic. Oh, yeah, of course. But our team, our team was able to work with the nursing home. And we put on a week long exhibit, where we had all of her art brought into the nursing home. And then residents and staff would go through in small groups compliant with all the regulations, and they would view her art. They would write down and leave notes. And they put this all in a reception book that for her was one of the most treasured possessions that she had. Marjorie was given a red carpet treatment. She wore her favorite lavender outfit. She was gifted a corsage, and she told our team that this was the second most wonderful day in her life. Oh, she said the first day for her best day was when her husband proposed to her this was the second most favorite day that she had in her life.
Ashton Jones:What a beautiful moment. And we have so many great care moments like that one. But I mean to coordinate such an extravagant event that really is a red carpet experience,
Jeff Marsh:where we take that for granted, we our teams across the country are creating those types of moments for patients every single day. Yeah.
Ashton Jones:Well, let's go ahead and continue our conversation on partnerships. And we're going to be touching on the outcomes this time around. So, Jeff, what other outcomes does compasses help to create with partners?
Jeff Marsh:Well, for health systems, we address outcomes that are top of mind for our customers. Right now, optimizing performance, safety for patients and reducing overall hospital length of stay are top of mind for health systems. There's a continued high demand for acute care. And so hospitals need support in discharging patients safely to home as quickly as they can, and our joint venture partnerships with them allow for those type of results. Hospitals are also focused on reducing the total cost of care without sacrificing the quality of the care that they're providing. And one way that they do that is to ensure that their patients are receiving care from a high quality provider like compasses. And when we're able to provide that type of care safely in the home, it lowers the likelihood that they'll be rehospitalized within the next 30 or 60 days, which is one of the ways that a hospital is measured.
Ashton Jones:So, along those lines in one sentence, how would you say that compasses really helps a partner reach their organizational objectives?
Jeff Marsh:Well, whether it's hospital length of stay, whether it's rehospitalization rates, inpatient mortality, continuity of care, or improving quality of outcomes, such as Star ratings, we have partnered with health systems to deliver an integrated Home Based Care strategy that helps them improve performance in these areas.
Ashton Jones:So what about the health system? isn't quite ready for a joint venture
Jeff Marsh:if a health system isn't ready for a joint venture, and I would also add provider groups or long term care organizations, we've partnered with them very effectively as a preferred provider. Yeah, and Long Term Care Organizations and hospitals are trying to intentionally reduce the variation of care provided. And so they're seeking high quality organizations to narrow their network might surprise you to know some hospitals and long term care organizations work with as many as a dozen different home health or hospice companies. And that's not necessarily good for the patient, because not all providers are equal.
Ashton Jones:So we've talked a lot about growth generally. And so what would you say is on the horizon for compasses,
Jeff Marsh:I'd say over the next year to three years, we'll enter into many more joint venture partnerships with health systems will continue to build out our product roadmap to include more value based options for payers, and any type of risk bearing entity. And I expect will continue to grow organically across the 29 states we currently serve. And the many more states I believe will enter over the next few years.
Ashton Jones:So before we wrap up today's episode, what message do you want to leave our audience with?
Jeff Marsh:Well, my message would depend on who's listening. If you have an affinity for home based care, and you're a clinician, a nurse, an LPN, a social worker, a physical therapist, or even a volunteer, we've made great strides in becoming a Home Care's employer of choice, and we'd love to work with you.
Ashton Jones:And how about any listeners who see themselves as potential partners.
Jeff Marsh:We're continuing to innovate. We're providing new products and care models that are resulting in better outcomes for patients, and better performance for health systems and advanced provider groups. So if you're a health system or a provider that would like to explore options for improving performance of home based care assets, then we'd love to talk with you.
Ashton Jones:Well, that brings us to the end of this episode of Home is where the health is today we talked about how partnerships can improve clinical outcomes and business performance. Jeff, I want to thank you for being our guest and sharing such insightful information. For our listeners. We hope learning more about Home Based Care partnerships was beneficial to you. If you like today's episode, and you're listening on a streaming service, go ahead and give us a like and a follow. And be sure to tune in next month for another in depth discussion on innovation in the home based care space with one of our experts. Until then, this is Ashton Jones with Home is where the health is. Thanks for listening