In a move in line with a national trend to take healthcare into the home, Cleveland Clinic Florida announced last week a joint venture with a New Jersey-based home health agency that will serve the patients of Cleveland Clinic Florida’s flagship hospital in Weston.
The joint venture between Cleveland Clinic Florida and VNA Health Group, the second-largest home healthcare nonprofit in the nation, will be co-owned by both entities, but managed by VNA Health Group.
The new organization will be called Cleveland Clinic Florida Visiting Nurses.
VNA Health Group and the new joint venture are separate from and not directly affiliated with the Visiting Nurses Association nonprofit healthcare agency in Indian River County.
The joint venture is starting from the ground up in Broward County, where Weston is located. There are no plans at the moment to expand to Cleveland Clinic Florida’s recently acquired Vero Beach hospital. Still, the joint venture is seen as shining a spotlight on home healthcare.
“We’re excited for them to join with Cleveland Clinic Weston,” said Lundy Fields, CEO of Vero-based VNA of the Treasure Coast.
The joint venture also brings a national voice on home healthcare closer to Cleveland Clinic Indian River in the person of Dr. Landers. A family physician and geriatrician, Landers led Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Home Care and Community Rehabilitation in Ohio before joining VNA Health Group.
Landers called Vero’s VNA “a really special organization,” praising Fields as someone he “really respects and looks up to.”
The Vero agency, founded in 1975, provides home healthcare, therapy, palliative care and hospice care to residents of Indian River and Brevard counties. Fields, who was named CEO of the agency only a year ago, said he looks forward to coordinating with Cleveland Clinic Florida Visiting Nurses to care for Vero patients who travel south for the highly complex procedures offered in Weston – including heart, kidney and liver transplants – and return home to recuperate.
Fields pointed out that VNA of the Treasure Coast already coordinates care with the Stuart-based VNA of Florida for Vero patients traveling to hospitals in Martin or St. Lucie counties for procedures. “We have a very friendly relationship with them, and I would expect that we would have a very friendly relationship with the VNA in Weston.”
“We’d be glad to find ways to coordinate care,” said Landers.
“Hospitals and health systems are having to really look more closely at the whole continuum of care and what happens once people are leaving the hospital,” said Landers. “In some instances, they are providing care without people being in the hospital in the first place.”
