When Watermark Retirement Communities sought new ways to help residents extend their lives and, at a fundamental level, feel heard about their own wellbeing, the operator turned to a hospitality-style, concierge approach.
Their partner: Curana Health.
“Watermark has had a positive experience with Curana Health in offering concierge medical services to our residents,” says Stephanie Boreale, National Director of Health Strategy at Watermark. “They have been a wonderful partner in making sure the model meets the needs of the communities they serve. They have been instrumental in helping shift the paradigm of symptom-based care to a more holistic and wellness-based preventive model.”
With Curana, Watermark receives a full suite of on-site, resident-centric physician services. Curana’s Concierge model includes the following services:
- Physician and Advanced Practice Provider coverage
- Predictable weekly in-home rounding
- Virtual Care Concierge services
- 24/7 clinical support
Here is a look at how Curana Health is bringing concierge health care to senior living, and why everybody wins when health care meets hospitality.
What it means when “health care meets hospitality”
The concept of bringing hospitality into senior living is popular and valuable. But it usually applies to lifestyle, activities and dining. Bringing a hospitality mindset to senior living health care services opens a host of possibilities for improving care and supporting occupancy goals.
Curana Health brings the high standards of care, increased access to care and convenience of traditional concierge models while allowing residents to be treated at home, and without the added monthly or annual fees associated with boutique medical practices.
“Our focus is not just sick care, but wellness and health care,” says Michael Emery, (FNP, MBA), Executive Vice President of Senior Living at Curana. “We are engaging residents earlier in their health care journey to keep them healthy, happy and at home.”
He adds: “When we look at our models, our concierge model is built like the old-school cable packages. You can get basic, which is great. And you can get premium, which builds upon the basic.”
With the Concierge+ (premium) model, Curana adds the following:
- On-site weekly Care Concierge visits
- Care coordination, including appointment scheduling for residents
- Value-based gainshare opportunities
- Monthly education campaigns for staff or residents
Concierge and Concierge+ models work best by layering in support to enhance the patient and resident experience in the following ways:
- Added engagement supports navigation of the health care system
- Participation in resident events enhances relationships and well-being
- A focus on outcomes over volume allows for more time with patients and families
“Their approach is keeping our residents healthier and at home,” Boreale says.
Creating wins for operators, residents — and Medicare
Emery views Curana’s services as creating wins for three key stakeholders.
“The communities and patients are always first, while the business of senior living is critical too,” he says.
A big way that Curana helps operators achieve all this is by delivering wins for the third key stakeholder: Medicare.
“Medicare has to move slowly because they have to be good stewards of the dollar,” Emery says. “They’re always looking at innovating, but innovation can be dangerous for large organizations that have a lot of lives at stake.”
Curana’s work prevents unnecessary hospitalizations by bringing proactive care to operators.
“That drives savings, which helps the bigger economic picture,” Emery says. “Medicare wants to drive better outcomes while being mindful of cost and the optimization of health care spend. Curana delivers a win for Medicare by creating space for safe, cost-effective and health-boosting innovation.
“Our model aligns with the patient, who gets to live longer, healthier and happier, in their desired place of service: their home,” he adds. “It aligns with operators because they get happier, healthier people living longer in their communities, and then Medicare saves money. It’s just a beautiful alignment and a nice synergy that is unique in our space.”
The power of data — and the 3 stats that reveal the impact of concierge health care
Crucial to all of this is the data that operators get access to via Curana’s platform. Curana delivers a standard suite of data while also empowering operators to focus on what they specifically want.
“We have identified 12 top KPIs,” Boreale says. “We are truly looking at if we are impacting acuity, length of stay, falls, mobility, medication, and depression. In addition to these, we want to understand if we are moving the needle on how residents feel about their own well-being.”
Concierge health care services are valuable for all residents, but especially those with complex care needs. That’s where Curana’s services really shine. Users of its concierge services see these game-changing outcomes:
- 43% reduction in hospitalizations
- 43% reduction in polypharmacy
- 30% reduction in falls
Reducing falls or polypharmacy alone would be a win. Reducing both is a clear-cut reason why hospitalizations are down among Curana partners, including Watermark, which is able to gain perhaps its most important outcome.
“Longevity of life is incredibly important to us,” Boreale says. “If we can keep our residents living longer, with a higher quality of life, then we are doing something right.”
This article is sponsored by Curana Health, whose integrated model of care increases patient satisfaction and reduces unnecessary hospitalizations by making real-time medical consultation available to residents and their families. To learn more, visit curanahealth.com.
