A part of the Catholic health system Trinity Health, Trinity Health At Home is one of the largest home health providers in the country.
The Livonia, Michigan-based company provides more than 1.9 million home health and hospice visits every year. Trinity Health, meanwhile, has 149 continuing care facilities and operates in over a dozen states.
Today, the provider is going through a transition. Former CEO Mark McPherson left the company in 2023, and Ruth Martynowicz – the COO and interim president and CEO of Trinity Health at Home – is guiding the company through that transition.
Martynowicz sat down with Home Health Care News to discuss unique retention strategies, leveraging virtual care to reduce hospitalizations, the provider’s growth strategies and more.
HHCN: As you step into the interim president and CEO role at Trinity Health at Home, what are some of the primary challenges you see facing home-based care providers today? And how is your agency addressing them?
Martynowicz: Like the rest of health care, the top challenge for home-based care providers is staffing. Now more than ever, home-based care providers face more competition to attract and retain top talent. At Trinity Health At Home, we put into place strategies to address this challenge.
In our recruitment efforts, we know that compensation is just one aspect of what candidates seek. We prioritize growing our supportive work culture, offering flexibility and providing career advancement opportunities. Through our social media strategy, we actively recognize and celebrate our colleagues individually and by discipline, giving potential new hires a glimpse into our culture and why we stand out as an employer of choice.
Colleague retention is important too. We formed a colleague-led committee that successfully launched recognition award programs and team-building activities.
We also prioritize listening to colleague feedback and then act upon their insight. For instance, colleagues told us they want more professional advancement opportunities. In response, we introduced a clinical advancement program last year for home care and hospice nurses. This year, we expanded the program to include therapy disciplines. We’ve also invested in clinical education platforms, allowing our colleagues to earn continuing education credits and certifications.
In recent years, Trinity Health at Home has chosen to build its own home care business rather than pursuing joint ventures. Can you share some insights into this strategic decision and how it aligns with the organization’s goals and values?
Trinity Health At Home is blessed to be a member of Trinity Health, one of the largest not-for-profit health care organizations in the country. We’ve been focused on welcoming the home-based care agencies of our sister regional health systems into our national organization and have been refining our centralized services so that our agencies can focus on outstanding care delivery and have been growing to serve more families.
Home-based care has an extremely important role in our Trinity Health mission to be a healing presence in the communities we serve together.
Do you anticipate getting into any joint ventures or partnerships? If so, what would that look like?
While our primary focus has been on growing our agencies within Trinity Health, we’ve also acquired an outside agency about two years ago — MercyOne. Additionally, we’ve expanded our virtual care program to reach patients beyond home care episodes.
We are enthusiastic about the ongoing development of our virtual care program and are actively exploring opportunities to expand our palliative and hospice care service lines. This may involve acquiring new hospice agencies or launching new hospice agencies to better serve our communities.
What specific opportunities do you see in the home-based care landscape as it relates to some of the technological developments in recent years?
Trinity Health Home Care Connect — our virtual care program — continues to grow. Patients and their families appreciate that our Trinity Health At Home Virtual Care Center team of registered nurses are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the click of a button. The program is achieving a 9.1% 30-day hospital readmission rate and a 12% 60-day readmission rate.
We are helping patients avoid unnecessary hospital readmissions and emergency room visits. More than 93% of patients are satisfied with their experience in the program and are more knowledgeable about their medications and condition. Virtual care helps empower patients to be more involved in their care and reach their goals.
We’re also preparing to pilot a program to expand the program from home care to include hospice, which would provide another connection point for patients and families of patients in end-of-life care to reach the care team if they have questions or if there’s been a change in condition.
As you settle into your new role, what short-term and long-term goals are you prioritizing for Trinity Health at Home? And how do you plan to achieve them?
Our primary goals right now include improving colleague retention, enhancing value-based metrics for home care, completing the integration process for our newer agencies and increasing our reach and volume of hospice services.
To achieve our colleague retention goals, we prioritize recognition and open communication with our colleagues. We are focused on developing our leaders.
Last year we launched a leadership academy to strengthen our leaders’ skills. We’re committed to removing barriers for clinicians, recognizing and rewarding top performers, maintaining a quality-review specialized team, enhancing education for our colleagues and increasing our marketing efforts.
Through these strategic approaches, we are positioning our organization for short and long-term success, delivering high-quality care to those we serve and fostering a positive working environment for our team.
Is private duty home care still something Trinity Health at Home is focusing on in the near term future?
No, private duty home care is not a focus area.
How is the organization adapting to perform well in HHVBP and other value-based care setups?
We are prioritizing the enhancement of home care value-based metrics, including timely initiation of care, readmission rate, willingness to recommend and value-based services.
Each agency has a dedicated quality leader or educator focusing on these crucial metrics. We regularly review these performance areas with our leaders and colleagues and identify opportunities for improvement.
With the increasing demand for home-based care services, how is Trinity Health at Home evolving to meet the needs of patients and families?
We are excited to continue expanding our virtual care program, which has received positive feedback from patients and their families. Virtual care plays a crucial role in empowering patients to actively participate in their care, aiding them in reaching their health goals while helping them avoid unnecessary ER visits and hospitalizations.
We also know that compassionate end-of-life care in the comfort of home is increasingly needed in our communities. There is an increasing awareness among families about the benefits of palliative and hospice care. They are now better informed and able to recognize earlier when their loved ones may need this level of support.
We’re glad to be there for them during this important time and continue to expand our end-of-life care offerings, including our bereavement services for community members who are grieving the loss of a loved one.
