A model of home health care that’s relatively new to Colorado — in which skilled nursing is delivered regularly in homes, homeless shelters and elsewhere for patients who have multiple physical and mental illnesses — is expanding from serving two counties in southern Colorado to encompass four more counties long the Front Range.
Innovive Health, founded in 2004 and headquartered in Medford, Mass., has operated in El Paso County for the past three years and for about a year in Pueblo County. It’s now received state and federal approval to add Denver, Arapahoe, Douglas and Jefferson counties to its repertoire, officials announced Thursday.
“We’re filling a gap — once people in the population we specialize in are discharged from a hospital, there’s not much medical care available to them,” said CEO and founder Joseph McDonough. “It’s a very underserved population; there’s a huge need for what we do.”
He unveiled his company’s expansion at an open house at the Colorado Springs office at 1125 Kelly Johnson Blvd.
Home health services typically benefit geriatric clients who need short-term wound care, physical and occupational therapy and other medical assistance while recovering, McDonough said.
Innovive Health generally works with younger patients, with an average client age of 50. All have a combination of mental and physical maladies, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression or addiction, in conjunction with heart and lung diseases, circulatory deficiencies and limb amputations, for example.
Patients receive case management, medication administration of an average of 15 to 18 prescriptions, other medical treatment and conferral with psychiatrists, primary care doctors and specialists.
The population of clients is challenging, McDonough said, and family members who act as caregivers often get burned out.
“That’s why so many end up homeless and why they struggle so much,” McDonough said. “They’re not going to get better, but their diseases need to be managed.”
Such individualized attention saves Colorado $200,000 per year per client, he estimates, largely from cost savings related to emergency room trips and hospitalizations.
After three years of having an office in Colorado Springs, McDonough said a team of 50 local employees is in place, making 61,000 visits last year, and the office is positioned to handle growth.
Colorado was selected for business, he said, because it ranks 48th worst out of 50 states plus the District of Columbia for access to behavioral care for adults, according to Mental Health America. But the state is known for supporting home health care for Medicaid patients, McDonough said, and 99% of Innovive patients receive Medicaid benefits.
Nurses visit patients anywhere from once a month to twice a day, depending on their needs, he said.
“We strive for the optimum level of independence,” McDonough said.
The company’s headquarters in Massachusetts handles 1.1 million home visits per year, or 3,100 a day, and McDonough envisions Colorado increasing its reach to match that volume over several years of steady progress.
Clients are referred by hospitals, police and fire personnel, homeless shelters, primary care practices, community health centers and senior living homes.
The end result is that patients have a better quality of life than they would have otherwise, McDonough said.
“It’s traumatic and chaotic if they’re hospitalized over and over again,” he said. “We are trying to change the way health care is delivered to this population in Colorado.”