Communities

Genesis HealthCare And Kindred Form Strategic Clinical Collaboration

February 14, 2017

KENNETT SQUARE, PA–Genesis HealthCare (Genesis) (NYSE:GEN) and Kindred Healthcare, Inc. (Kindred) (NYSE:KND), two of the largest providers of post-acute care in the nation, today announced a strategic clinical collaboration to improve quality, outcomes and care transitions across the post-acute continuum. This clinical collaboration brings together Genesis as the nation’s top skilled nursing facility provider and Kindred as one of the leading providers of rehabilitation and post-acute care in the United States with services that include home health, hospice, long-term acute care (LTAC) hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and contract rehabilitation in acute and skilled facilities.

“I am excited to embark on this new groundbreaking clinical relationship with Kindred,” noted George V. Hager, Jr., Chief Executive Officer of Genesis. “Under the new world of value-based purchasing, providers across the continuum need to collaborate to identify ways to provide the best care possible. Our relationship marks the first time the two largest providers of post-acute care are working together to pave the future for patients, payers and the healthcare system.”

“Through this collaborative relationship, Kindred and Genesis will build upon our abilities to deliver quality, share best practices and improve care transitions in local markets across all post-acute settings in order to meet patients where and when they need care,” said Benjamin A. Breier, Kindred’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our future will be driven by collaborative efforts to deliver coordinated post-acute care with other providers, enabled by technology and data-driven care management capabilities. We believe that working with Genesis is an important step in driving effective patient-centered care solutions and proactively addressing the changing healthcare marketplace.”

Genesis and Kindred will collaborate in order to develop and implement healthcare initiatives across the healthcare continuum with the specific goals to improve quality care, patient safety, efficiency and availability of healthcare services in the community. The collaboration will utilize the clinical expertise of both entities to align patient care across the continuum, but it does not limit each company’s relationships with other providers. A high priority will be placed on timely, efficient and safe care transitions for patients across post-acute care settings. The new relationship will include comprehensive data tracking and analysis on discharges, readmissions, length of stay, and other key quality and episode of care statistical information in order to develop evidence-based clinical protocols, quality standards and benchmarks to benefit patients.

Genesis and Kindred also plan to work together to:
• Promote physician collaboration and integration to improve patient outcomes and the patient experience across the continuum of care;
• Support the development of post-acute care networks based on assessments of different patient populations and services in order to better meet evolving patient needs in the community;
• Identify ways to improve care and outcomes for specific patient populations, including sharing data, developing shared protocols and establishing best practices to care for these patients, in compliance with all applicable laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act;
• Identify ways to better understand population health and track patients’ episodes of care post-discharge, through improved information technology capabilities or otherwise; and
• Develop processes, guidelines and tools for post-acute care discharge planning and care transitions for patients and their families.

Both Genesis and Kindred also offer unique non-core businesses that improve outcomes and further patient care which the other does not offer. For example, Genesis wholly owns CareerStaff Unlimited, a staffing firm, and Vitality to You, which provides in-home services through its Outpatient Therapy agencies, while Kindred offers AfterCare for post-discharge telephonic follow-up for LTAC hospitals and hundreds of home health and hospice operations. Both companies will look to leverage the others’ capabilities as needed.

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