MINNEAPOLIS and CHARLOTTE, North Carolina—Atrium Health and Best Buy Health are partnering to develop new offerings to deliver hospital-level care in the home. According to the two companies, the goal is to enable providers to deliver high-quality care to patients in their own homes while helping reduce emotional and financial burdens on patients and caregivers.
With the move, Best Buy is venturing further into the aging-in-place space. In 2021, it added its care-at-home platform, Current Health, combining remote patient monitoring, telehealth and patient engagement into a single solution for health care providers. It also offers a suite of health and safety devices and services for the home.
“We knew Atrium Health was the right partner to help tackle the unique challenges within the care-at-home experience,” said Deborah Di Sanzo, president of Best Buy Health. “We’re excited to leverage our expertise in omnichannel, supply chain, Caring Center support and services, in-home support and our ability to connect patients and providers through Current Health’s care at home platform. Those strengths, combined with Atrium Health’s extensive clinical expertise and deep experience leading in virtual care, will help us improve and enable care in the home for everyone.”
This partnership takes advantage of Atrium Health’s established hospital-at-home program and patient population of nearly 3 million people. Best Buy Health says it brings an innovative omnichannel experience, distinctive in-home service and supply chain. Some requirements include patient education and enabling technology in the home with the help of specially trained Geek Squad Agents to assist with logistics and technical support.
“Our partnership with Best Buy Health will help change the lives of our patients and consumers, giving them access to the tools and experiences they need to receive care in the comfort of their own home,” said Dr. Rasu Shrestha, chief innovation and commercialization officer at Advocate Health, of which Atrium Health is a part. “Our surveys show high levels of patient satisfaction for our hospital-at-home experience and the use of virtual care is a valuable tool in our efforts to eradicate both economic and geographic disparities in accessing health care services.
Atrium Health launched its hospital-at-home program as a means to address patient surges during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Atrium Health has since evolved the program to be able to care for such conditions as cardiac, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia, asthma, various infections and other medical and post-operative conditions.
"Together with Best Buy Health, we will combine our strengths to provide better outcomes and equitable access for patients who will receive their care in the home," Shrestha said. "This will also allow for a more successful and seamless process for the providers caring for them.”
