Seven southwestern Pennsylvania health systems and hospitals are working together on a task force to address patient discharges and other post-acute care issues during the pandemic, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The Western PA Home & Community Task Force involves case management leaders from Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health Network; Butler (Pa.) Health; Greensburg, Pa.-based Excela Health; and Beaver, Pa.-based Heritage Valley Health System, as well as St. Clair Hospital and UPMC, both based in Pittsburgh, and Washington (Pa.) Health System.
"We've all been trying to manage discharges during the pandemic," Monique Reese, DNP, senior vice president, home and community care, at Highmark Health, the parent company of Allegheny Health Network, told the Post-Gazette. "We didn't know who would accept [COVID-19-positive patients], or who wouldn't, and who had capacity. So, we agreed as a group to leverage web technology so we could identify which nursing facilities and which home health organizations had capacity."
The idea for the task force came after the same seven hospitals and health systems united as part of a CMO consortium. Similar to the CMO consortium, the task force allows the organization leaders to share best practices to solve common problems, according to the Post-Gazette.
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